INTERNATIONAL WATER SKI FEDERATION WORLD DISABLED COUNCIL 1997 1997 World Championships The first World Disabled Water Ski Championships ever held on U.S. soil took place at Jack & Lelani Travers' site in Okahumpka Florida on August 21-24. Sixty-six athletes from a record sixteen countries competed for medals while skiers from eleven different ones, with at least two from each IWSF Region, mounted the highest step of the podium. The attendance of two new countries from the Pan Am Region, Canada and Argentina, was most welcome: An Argentine leg amputee stated his case by winning the gold and coming within one buoy of a world slalom record. Despite the increased level of ability in all categories, there were still 16 new world records and one tie (7 jump, 8 tricks and 2 slalom) performed by athletes from five different countries. The Third World Tournament's most outstanding athletes were Debbie Cummings, an arm amputee from Great Britain, with four world records and five golds and Peter Brepoels, a partially sighted skier from Belgium with two world records and four golds. The only other multiple-record setter was a quadriplegic from the U.S., Bill Furbish with two, in jump! A fierce battle was raged for the prestigious team title between the two-time defending world team champion United States and Great Britain, the winner of all three World Trophies. The victor was not decided until the final American skier had left the water. The British won by a mere 170 points out of over 14,000, but the Americans promised to return with a vengeance in 1999. The rivalry will continue. Our thanks go to hard working chief organizer and U.S. Team Manager Rhonda Van Dyk; Jack & Lelani Travers, gracious site owners and co-organizers; all the officials, most ably led by Australia's David Beretta as Chief Judge and his Assistant Dan Van Dyk from the U.S.; and especially the many volunteers on-site and off that made the tournament flow. 1999 World Championships The hope is that the fourth World Championships will take place in Italy in September of 1999. Records There were 24 records approved in 1997. The most notable was a performance by Bill Bowness of the U.S., the current MP3 world overall champion, who became the first sit skier to ever complete a full pass on the outer course in slalom in an RC event. Skier Classification The committee is completing a new, streamlined skier classification program that will simplify the process and be far less time-consuming for both classifiers and athletes. Athlete Representation Of the nine IWSF Disabled Council members, six are elite athletes with five having attended the 1997 worlds as members of their teams. All five were medaled with gold. On the four member technical committee, there are three athletes, one of them Bill Bowness who also sits on AWSA's AAC. Rules Shortly, we will publish our 1988 Technical Rules Addendum which will be up to date with that of Tournament and include all changes since the 1995 disabled rule book. As you know, our rule book keys off of Tournament rules to avoid the necessity of having two distinct sets of rules. A New Category and A New Event At the 1999 Worlds, we have scheduled an audio slalom event in addition to wake slalom for the vision impaired. Audio slalom is an attempt to better mirror able-bodied slalom with athletes skiing around imaginary buoys in the actual course but using a mechanical device on the rope to produce sounds indicating when to initiate a turn. This event will be medaled, but the skiers' scores will not be eligible for team scoring - a perfect way to trial an event, by encouraging athletes to compete while not adversely affecting the team or individual overall results. Our plan is to replace wake slalom with this event for the vision impaired in the 2001 Worlds. Similarly, we have also scheduled a new category at the 1999 Worlds, provisionally called A/L, for leg and arm amputees and other athletes with upright balance problems. Again the intent is to add this as a new category in the 2001 Worlds. 12/97 - Jim Grew, IWSF Disabled Council Chair