As the sport of swimming continues to grow globally, FINA has found one of the few remaining pockets in the world to have not been brought under its umbrella. East Timor has now been added as the 203rd member federation, supplanting Tonga (2010) as the youngest member of the organization.
East Timor, known officially as Timor-Leste, occupies the East end of the island of Timor, with the other half being controlled by Indonesia. These sort of advances, though they may seem rather trivial, are significant in the history of a country that battled for decades for independence from Indonesia. They officially became the 21st-centuries first new sovereign state in May of 2012, and their admission into FINA indicates that they are advancing through the multitude of administrative and cultural overhauls that need to be conquered when any new nation is admitted into the global village.
East Timor is a country struck by poverty, however it does have large oil and gas reserves that has led to it being one of the fastest-growing economies in the world at about a 10% annual clip in 2012.
East Timor will hope to have the same kind of immediate success and growth in the sport as Tonga did. That included sending swimmer Amini Fonua, a former Big 12 Champion from Texas A&M, to the 2012 Summer Olympic just two years after incorporation. Just 6-months after the federation became official, he also became the country’s first Oceanic Champion when he won the 2010 50 breaststroke.
Among the major grass-roots sporting initiatives in East Timor is the Academy of Swimming Education East Timor, a non-profit that is educating young swimmers and seeking to build a 20-meter indoor pool.