International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation

The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) was founded in 1946, in Génève, Switzerland, and is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the sole authority governing all towed water sports.

The IWWF oversees competitions in 10 different disciplines: waterskiing, wakeboarding, barefoot waterskiing, show waterskiing, cable wakeboarding, cable waterskiing, waterski racing, disabled waterskiing, kneeboarding, and wakesurfing. The first edition of the Water Ski World Championships was staged in 1949, in Juan-les-Pins, France, and the different disciplines were each entered into the championships programme throughout the years.

Only the discipline of waterskiing has ever appeared at the Olympics, but only once and just as a demonstration sport, at the München 1972 Games. Despite never being included in the Olympic Programme, waterskiing was contested as an official sport at the World Games from its 1981 inaugural edition until 2022.

Currently, other disciplines governed by the IWWF are still contested at the World Games, and the presence of the sport in this competition has grown in recent years: barefoot waterskiing appeared in 1993 as an invitational sport, and was contested from 1997-2009 as an official sport; wakeboard has been included continuously at the World Games since 2001; cable wakeboard débuted in the programme in 2005 and returned 20 years later; and wake surf was first staged in the latest edition of the World Games, in 2025.

As of January 2026, the organization has 96 member federations. A member of the Association of the IOC-recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF), the IWWF’s headquarters is located in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its current president is Mexico’s José Antonio Pérez.