CMAS has about 7 or more uw sports: skin spear, fin swimming, uw oritenteering, target shooting, apnea, uw rugby, uw hockey and maybe a new one or two I've seen mentioned. CMAS main interest has always been fin swimming (potential Olympic sport), and fin has all sorts of CMAS competitions and championships, at junior (what we would calll under 19s or more accurately now under 18s) and 'senior' levels.

But no other sport, none, has CMAS approved junior and/or masters competitions. UW hockey did have them; caught hell (loudly) from CMAS for having them - If you look at the CMAS main page on website, I think you'll see a fin swimming junior competition coming up.

Duck is right, Olympics only have elite competitions - age limits as set by each individual sport IFs - ie FINA, etc. We know some sports allow very young athletes (under 18s) - ie swimming, gymnastics, diving, etc.

But remember, the major sport IFs are huge - long history for many too - some sports over 100 yrs old. They have large well paid headquarters, staff, programs, and their member countries also have full programs, support and staffing. Some of the Olympic sports have 100 countries in their field - ie basketball, soccer, etc.

CMAS has about 60-70 countries when all uw sports are tallied. Fin has about 40 countries; others far fewer (ie hockey at about 25; rugby at about 15; etc). And skin spear does have over 30 countries, but no one likes to talk about 'that sport.' CMAS has tiny office and about 1.5 paid staff. They are very far behind in all aspects to catch up - competing with PADI in training and Olympics programs. And they don't have the resources: time, money, staff, programs, It is unfortunate.

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Carol Rose