2009 World Aquatics Championships  The 2009 World Aquatics Championships () or the XIII FINA World Championships were held in Rome, Italy from 18 July to 2 August 2009. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines: diving, swimming, open water swimming, synchronised swimming and water polo. Rome won the right to stage the event on 16 July 2005 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Rome defeated rival bids from Athens (Greece), Moscow (Russia) and Yokohama (Japan). A record 2556 athletes from 185 countries participated. FINA's decision to allow the use of polyurethane suits caused these Championships to be dubbed the "Plastic Games". As is customary with the World Championships, FINA held its biennial General Congress in Rome during the event, on July 24, 2009 beginning at 9:00 a.m. At this meeting, the 22-member FINA Bureau (the executive board of the IF) was for its 2009-2013 term. Per FINA rules, the Bureau then elected the Executive officers from its members (i.e. President, Treasurer and Secretary). In addition to the General Congress, Technical Congresses (TCs), or discipline-specific meetings, will be in each present discipline, as well as an Extraordinary Congress on Masters Rules. Dates for these meetings are:  Note: The Technical Congresses were scheduled to be held prior to both the start of competition within the given disciple and before the General Congress. Also note: only swimming does not have competition on the date of the General Congress. In March 2009, based on urgings from its membership, FINA had begun an attempt to implement limits to high-tech swimsuit construction that were seen by members of the swimming community as adding buoyancy, stability, speed and endurance. These efforts began after suit introductions in early 2008, and led to a May 2009 declaration by FINA on limitations to suits and a list of approved suits for competition. Following this, suit manufactures were given time to adjust their various products which had not been initially approved. In June 2009, FINA ruled on these, and subsequently was forced into backing off the suit restrictions it had named in March presumably on fear of suit (although FINA still was sued by some manufacturers, such as TYR). The net effect was that leading into the 2009 World Championships, most restrictions on suit make-up were not in force. This situation also led to rule changes being passed by both FINA's Technical Swimming Committee (on July 23) and the General Congress (July 24) placing restrictions on suits.