HOW TO/REGULATIONS

DEFINITION

Finswimming is an aquatic sport where the athlete uses accessories in order to attain great speed.

By "Finswimming", we mean the progression with a Monofin or with two fins either on the surface or underwater, using the swimmers' muscular force only and without the use of support or any mechanism, not even muscle-powered. For underwater disciplines with breathing equipment, only compressed-air sub-aqua equipment is allowed.

Regulations

	CMAS Finswimming Rules 2025	976.25 KB
	CMAS World Cup Finswimming Indoor Rules 2025	823.34 KB
	CMAS World Cup Open Water Rules	1.75 MB
	CMAS Finswimming Judges Rules	1.94 MB
	CMAS Finswimming Juniors World Cup Swimming Pool Rules	286.15 KB
	Appendix 1 Homologated Bi Fins	4.13 MB
	Appendix 2 Homologated Swimsuits	4.47 MB
	Appendix 3 Homologated Monofins	699.65 KB
	Appendix 4 WORLD GAMES SELECTION CRITERIA	850.67 KB
	Appendix 5 Ellimination Races Setup	1.21 MB
	APPENDIX 6 CMAS FINSWIMMING EVENTS PROGRAM	2.84 MB
	Appendix 7 WORLD SERIES	567.95 KB

DOCUMENTS

	CMAS Procedures and Obligations	1.21 MB
	2024 06 30 V2 General Protocol Cat A	575.76 KB

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Indoor Surface

The athlete swims, using a monofin, in a style reminiscent of the motion of dolphins. The use of a snorkel for breathing allows the body to have a perfect hydrodynamic position. It is a spectacular style of swimming because of the speeds attained, close to 11 km/h. The competition program comprises distances from 50 to 1500 m.

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Indoor Immersion

These are events which connect with the history of the underwater activities. The athlete swims underwater with a monofin using a small compressed-air tank. Immersion events require a high technical expertise. The velocities reached are higher than those of the surface events.

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Indoor Apnea

This is a single-breath event. The athlete swims with monofin underwater over a distance of 50 m. This is the most rapid style with speeds reaching 13 km/h.

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Indoor Bi-fins

These events reconnect with the history of finswimming, since at the birth of the discipline bi-fins were the only existing accessories. Bi-fin events were introduced in the official program in 2006. The swimming style is that of classical crawl but the speeds reached are substantially greater than those of classical swimming.

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INDOOR RELAYS

Team events exist in swimming-pool. Usually they comprise teams of four swimmers, which may, depending on the event, be mixed and also be swam with monofin, bi-fins or both.

They are spectacular events because there are often changes in the relative positions during the race.

Open Water Surface

These are long-distance events taking place in open water (lakes, rivers or the sea). Both monofin and bi-fin events exist. The orientation in an environment with few points of reference plays a major role, making open water swimming particularly challenging.

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Open Water Elimination

These are new events included in the competition program in 2021. They are held in open water over a distance of 150 m. The athletes, or the teams, swim successive rounds where the ones classified in the last places are eliminated from the next round. These are events where the strategy of effort allocation plays a major role.

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Open Water Bi Fins

Bi-fin events exist also in open water competitions. Contrary to the swimmming-pool events the swimming style is free.

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Open Water Relays

Team events exist also in open water competitions. Usually they comprise teams of four swimmers, which may, depending on the event, be mixed and also be swam with monofin, bi-fins or both.

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