The International World Games Association, abbreviated as IWGA, is an international association, recognised by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

(IOC), that organises every four years, beginning in 1981, the

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

called The World Games.

History

The IWGA was founded on 21 May 1980 in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, as ''World Games Council'' by 12 international sports federations with a worldwide reach that were not yet part of the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. The intention was to increase the popularity of the sports represented by these federations. The IWGA was constituted under Swiss law as a non-governmental and non-profit-making organisation. In 1984, the ''World Games Council'' was renamed as the ''International World Games Association''. Since its creation, the number of member federations has increased to 39 with the most recent admissions being the International Sambo Federation and International Wushu Federation in May 2021.

Structure

The highest body of the IWGA is the General Meeting. It is chaired by the President. It is composed of representatives from Member Federations, with one vote per federation. General Meetings can be held whenever deemed necessary, but one must be held each year as the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Among other rights, the General Meeting has the power to: * Approve and amend the Constitution * Ratify the selection of the Host City of The World Games * Ratify the selection of the sports, or disciplines of sports, of The World Games * Establish Committees

Membership

Federations that intend to become a full member of the IWGA must be part of the

Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations The Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation constituted through and recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The ARISF's members are international spor ...

(

ARISF The Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation constituted through and recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The ARISF's members are international sport ...

). Since 2014, IOC recognition has become a prerequisite for International Federations to become a Member of the IWGA. Sports that want to be recognised by the IWGA need to have a worldwide significance but actually must not be in the programme of the Olympic Games. Increasingly, international sports federations that take part in the Olympic Games have maintained a presence in the World Games for the disciplines and events that cannot be included in the Olympics, e.g. compound and field archery, acrobatic and aerobic gymnastics.

Affiliate status

Since 2020, Affiliate Status was introduced for full Members of ASOIF and AIOWF. Affiliate status is temporary, and only open to those Federations that are not a Member of the IWGA and feature on the programme of the next edition of The World Games or of other sport events that the IWGA organises.

Member federations

The following international sports federations are members of IWGA.

References

External links

* {{Authority control International International Olympic Committee World Games Organisations based in Lausanne International sports organisations based in Switzerland Sports organizations established in 1980