Hungarian Olympic swimming star Katinka Hosszu announced Tuesday the launch of a union to represent swimmers against FINA, the sport’s governing body, that she accuses of ignoring athletes.
The membership of the Global Association of Professional Swimmers (GAPS) represents “all continents of the globe”, Hosszu, a triple Olympic gold medal winner in Rio last year, wrote in a Facebook post.
Among 14 Olympic champions in the list of 29 founding members with Hosszu are Japan’s Hagino Koszuke, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, and American swimmers Katie Meili and Conor Dwyer.
“We expect swimmers to be treated as equal partners. We expect that (leaders of FINA) will sit down and start talking to us, we expect that they will listen to the voice of the professional swimmers and we expect to have a say in important decisions about the future of our sport,” said Hosszu.
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