Sofia, Bulgaria, May 25, 2023: The Director General of the Olympic Council of Asia and President of World Aquatics, Capt. Husain Al Musallam, has been bestowed an Honorary Doctorate Causa Award in Sports Science by the Vasil Levski National Sports Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria.
This prestigious award is in recognition of Captain Husain’s remarkable services to the sport of aquatics as an athlete, official, administrator and now world leader.
In his acceptance speech, Capt. Husain said he was “extremely proud and grateful” to receive the honour. “I will always treasure in my memory this very special day,” he said.
Capt. Husain informed the audience that next month would mark the second anniversary of his election as President of FINA, which is now known as World Aquatics to encompass all six disciplines.
“As I look out into the audience here today, I see many young men and women. You are so lucky to be at an Academy like this. You will all have different talents, different strengths, different weaknesses. But I am sure that you all have one thing in common: You all have dreams. You all want to achieve something. I admire that. I love speaking to young people and hearing about their ambitions.
“This is what motivates me most in my role as President of World Aquatics. It is my responsibility to enable as many of our aquatics athletes as possible to fulfil their dreams. The Federation represents swimmers, divers, high divers, open water swimmers, water polo players and artistic swimmers. It is such a large group of people, and my job is to work hard for all of them.”
Capt. Husain spoke of the sacrifices athletes must make to reach the top, and this why he adopted the “athletes will always come first” policy in his role as President.
“When I was a young man, I was an athlete. I was a swimmer who represented my country, Kuwait. Swimming has given me so much over the past 50 years. It has given me friends for life, it has given me the opportunity to travel all over the world, and it has taught me so much about discipline and commitment.
“Sometimes I like to wonder what I would have said when I was a teenage swimmer if somebody had told me that one day, I would become President of the International Federation. I am sure that I would not have believed them! There had never been a President of FINA from Asia. It would have seemed like an impossible dream. And that is one thing that I have learned in my life, and it is a very important message that I like to give to all young people: Do not believe that any dream is impossible. My journey is proof that even the impossible dreams can come true.”
Capt. Husain added that he wanted to use his experience as a swimmer to help other athletes – and this remained his objective today.
He also spoke of the changes he has made in his two years as President, including increased prize money, establishing a reform committee, setting up an athletes’ committee elected by fellow athletes and changing the name from FINA to World Aquatics.
In closing, the World Aquatics President stressed that it was the governing body’s duty to look after all participants, not just at the elite level.
“Hundreds of millions of people around the world take part in exercise in the water. I need to represent all these people. This is why I am supporting programmes to help people to learn to swim. This is not only being done to keep people more healthy, but it is also saving lives.
“Our vision is for a world that is united by water for health, life and sport. I would like to accept this award on behalf of all those who participate in aquatic sport. We are all one big aquatics family.”
