International Water Ski Federation Olympic Issues

International Water Ski Federation

Why Water Skiing should be in the Olympics

Water Skiing is a modern sport practiced world-wide with approximately 30 million participants on a recreational basis. Over 75 countries have formal Water Ski Federations organized to have competitions. Our sport offers high energy, high power, and high speed all of which televises well into an exciting presentation. Our athletes are attractive and well conditioned as well as clearly performing athletic moves that require speed, strength, and agility.

Each event in a water ski competition requires different skills. Figure skiing requires speed, grace, and agility. Slalom requires strength, timing, and rhythm. Jump requires power, timing and courage. Each event is unique in its presentation of the athlete's skills. The judging of each event is based on objective, easily understood criteria. In slalom, the score is strictly a count of the buoys that the competitor skies around. In figures, the judges only have to decide if each figure was done or not. The is no type of form subjectivity. In jump, only the distance is measured.

The format of a Water Ski competition lends itself to an Olympic style competition of preliminaries and finals without burdening the event with a huge number of athletes. In the Pan Am Games, the contest was decided with fewer than 50 competitors.

In short, Water Skiing can provide many important attractive attributes to the Summer Olympics. The thrill of a 200+ foot jump with the speed and height of the skier's trajectory is unmatched by any other summer sport on the program. Water Skiing would be a wonderful addition to the program of the Olympic Games.

Entry in to the Olympics

The IWSF is continuing its effort to become a part of the Olympic Program. As we know, we were narrowly passed by for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Our efforts should focus on the 2004 Games.

President Botero continues to be involved in this effort by meeting with IOC members and becoming more involved with the IOC. To add to this effort, every Federation should become closely involved with their National Olympic Committee. If your Federation is not affiliated with the NOC, you must take steps immediately to do so. This is the single most important thing that can be done at the local level to increase the international awareness of the sport of Waterskiing.

At the current moment there are about 40 countries that are affiliated with their NOC's. A list is included at the end of this document. The next decision point for entry in the Olympics is in 1997 or 7 years before the games when the program is declared. As part of this process, we must determine the bidding cities and verify that they would encourage our sport as part of the program.

Please contact President Botero for information in this area.

Direct mail link to Andres Botero

Entry in to Regional Games

Waterskiing has been a participant in several Regional Games. The most recent was the Pan American Games in Argentina. This proved tremendously successful. Several new technologies such as speed control and Video jump distance measurement were used with great success. The tournament proved that Water Skiing was indeed ready and able to participate in an Olympic Games. Currently we are waiting for official confirmation of Water Skiing being on the program of the 1999 Pan American Games in Winipeg, Canada.

Other Regional competitions are planned. I intend to list other Regional Games that Water Skiing has participated in here.

IOC Events and Regional Games that had Water Skiing

1972 Olympic Games, Kiel, Germany (demonstration sport)
All of the World Games starting at Santa Clara, CA, USA
1983 Southeast Asia Games, Singapore
1987 Southeast Asia Games, Indonesia
1995 Pan American Games, Argentina

Future Events that Water Skiing will participate in

1997 Mediterranean Games (demonstration sport)
1999 Pan AMerican Games, Winnipeg, Canada
1996 Police and Fire Games, Canada
1997 World Games, Lahti, Finland

Games that Water Skiing is working toward being included

1998 Goodwill Games, New York
Caribbean and Central American Games, Maracaibo, Venezuela
2002 Asian Games, Dusan, Korea
South East Asia Games
2004 Olympic Games

List of Federations Affiliated with their NOC(1994)

THI Thailand Water Ski Association
MAL The Waterskiers Society of Malaysia
SIN Singapore Water Ski Association
BER Bermuda Water Ski Association
CHI Chile Water Ski Association
CHN Chinese Water Ski Association
BEL Belgian Water Ski Federation
GBR British Water Ski Federation
TPE Chinese Taipei Water Ski Association
CAN Water Ski Canada
AUS Australian Water Ski Federation
SAF South African Water Ski Federation
LUX Union Luxembougease de Ski Nautique
COL Federacion Colombiana de Esqui Nautica
SWE Svenska Vattenskidforbundet
KOR Korean Water Ski Association
ITA Italian Water Ski Federation
GER German Waterski Federation
USA American Water Ski Association
CYP Cyprus Water Ski Federation
TCH Ceskoslovensky svaz vodniho lyzovani
DEN Danish Water Ski Federation
GOR Water Ski Federation of Georgia
NOR Norwegian Water Ski Federation
HGK Hong Kong Waterski Association
MEX Federacion Mexicana De Esqui Acuatico
FRA Federation Francaise de Ski Nautique
ARG Federacion Argentina de Esqui Nautico