United States Aquatic Sports

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United States Aquatic Sports (USAS) is the United States's representative federation to FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) in all aquatic sports. Since by U.S. law and FINA regulations, the United States must have only one representative federation for itself to FINA, United States Aquatic Sports has served as the unifying body for the sports since 1980. The five national governing bodies (NGB's) that make up USAS are USA Swimming, USA Diving, United States Synchronized Swimming, USA Water Polo, and United States Masters Swimming. Of those five, only United States Masters Swimming is not a member of the United States Olympic Committee.

United States Aquatic Sports plays a very minor role in the representation, and while USAS is the titular member federation, the NGB's play de facto roles in making decisions about participation in international competition and hosting (e.g., USAS is the official host of the 2006 FINA World Masters Championships, but most of the support to the organizing committee is provided by United States Masters Swimming). Ostensibly, USAS will "sign off" on the selections of an NGB's delegation to an international competition (whether hosted by the IOC, FINA, or ASUA (Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas)).

USAS hosts an annual convention which the five NGB's colocate their national conventions at. The reasoning behind this is to allow the NGB's to save money on their national conventions and to allow collaboration between the NGB's on common issues of interest.