Finswimming

Finswimming is a progressive underwater sport and competitive discipline that involves swimming with a monofin or bifins across various distances in the shortest possible time. The athlete's objective is to cover the distance on or under the water surface using muscular strength and a monofin.

Competition Disciplines

The competition program for this sport includes:

• Surface swimming (Sf) with a snorkel over distances of 50 to 1500 meters;
• Apnoea jinswimming (Ap) over a 50-meter distance on a single breath hold;
• Immersion swimming (Im) with scuba equipment over distances of 100, 400, and 800 meters;
• Relay races — competitions where team members takes turns swimming specific stages of the distance.
• Open water swimming also features marathon races over distances of 3, 6, and 20 kilometers.

Distances

Types of Distances

• Sf: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 4 × 100 relay, and 4 × 200 relay (meters);
• Ap: 50 m;
• Im: 100, 400, 800 (meters);
• Bf: 50, 100, and 200 meters (bifins — a separate pair of fins used for front crawl swimming).

Age Groups and Related Restrictions

Equipment

Athlete Equipment:

• Swimsuits, swim trunks, and competition bikinis, as well as the use of logos on them, are regulated by CMAS.
• Mask. The rules do not specify any particular requirements regarding masks.
• Monofin. The size of the monofin is limited by the regulations and can be verified using a special template.
• Bifins — a separate pair of fins for swimming front crawl. The choice of bifins is restricted to brands approved by CMAS.
• Snorkel. Only snorkels positioned in the front-center of the athlete's head (so-called "front" snorkels) are permitted. The maximum and minimum dimensions of the snorkel are also restricted.
• Cylinder (Scuba tank). Restrictions: open circuit type, compressed air as the breathing mix, minimum cylinder capacity of 0.4 liters with a maximum pressure of 200 bar. At the same time, there are no restrictions on the regulators used.

Olympic-standard pools (50 m long, 21 m wide, and 1.8 m deep) are used for competitions. International rules prohibit the use of 25-meter pools, although they may be used in regional and national competitions.

Open water competitions can be held in both marine and freshwater areas. The main requirements are the absence of currents and water quality suitable for swimming.

History

The sport emerged in Europe following the availability of commercial rubber fins in the mid-1930s. Luigi Ferraro, an Italian underwater diving pioneer, is recognized for organizing the first finswimming competition in 1951.

The first European Championship, which featured disciplines in both finswimming and underwater orienteering, was held under the title of the First European Championship in Underwater Activities in Angera, Italy, in August 1967. Finswimming included 40 m and 1000 m distances, reportedly utilizing either surface swimming techniques or, respectively, apnea and immersion methods. In 1969, the first European Finswimming Championship separate from orienteering took place in Locarno, Switzerland.

The first World Championship was held in Hannover, Germany, in 1976, followed by the inclusion of the sport in the inaugural World Games in Santa Clara, California, USA, in 1981. In 1988, the first Long Distance World Championship took place in Paris, France, followed by the first World Junior Championship in Dunaújváros, Hungary, in 1989.

The introduction of the monofin in the early 1970s led to the breaking of all world records by the end of the decade due to the superior performance of the monofin when used instead of bifins.

In 2007, the first bifins competitions were held using fins homologated by CMAS.

USSR

Many believe that engineers were inspired to create the monofin by the famous film “Amphibian Man”, produced by “Lenfilm” based on the novel by A. Belyaev. It was the specialists of the “Lenfilm” movie studio who actually anticipated the appearance of the monofin, making a person move like a dolphin. In 1962, engineer V. Suetin, who was also an underwater sports instructor, manufactured the world's first monofin, which somewhat resembled a mermaid's tail. The monofin was intended for filming an amateur underwater movie titled “The Girl and the Sea”. It was there that it was first demonstrated how unusually, freely, and quickly a person moves underwater using a monofin, working with their legs like a dolphin. In 1968, a coach from Leningrad, E. Rekson, joined a conventional pair of fins together, effectively binding the athlete's feet at the lower part of the foot, and glued the resulting lower surface onto a rubber plate. The plate itself tapered from the foot pockets to the blade tip. In the winter of 1968, his student O. Tikhonenko performed with this innovation in Moscow. It was the first athletic performance using a monofin in a major competition. Meanwhile, B. Porotov manufactured a new monofin with a wedge-shaped cross-section. Starting in the spring of 1969, in the modernized monofin, B. Porotov's student Nadezhda Turukalo embarked on a “victory march”, consecutively winning almost all short distances, starting with the 50 m apnea immersion, and became the champion of Kazakhstan, and subsequently the champion and record holder of the World, Europe, and the USSR. Naturally, they transitioned from apnea diving to surface monofin swimming. Since then, a new method of high-speed underwater swimming — the “dolphin style” — became established and refined. Starting in 1971, men also began competing with the monofin. The first to do so was Aleksandr Salmin from Novosibirsk.

Official commission page on the CMAS website