Yes, I believe that even in the Winter Olympics it can be quite hard. In fact Snowboarding went in under the Skiing federation's wing, against the wishes of the Snowboarding federation. That is to say that Snowboarding said no to the offer to come in under skiing, but the ski boys ignored them and pulled the sport in under their control. Its entirely possible that FINA could do the same to CMAS.

Oh, and thanks for this forum Carl, I'll take advantage of it