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WATERSKI MagazineFor years the idea of a worldwide professional water skiing circuit has been bandied about as nothing more than a concept. Sure, it sounded nice, but why would the world's top promoters and organizers sacrifice their own little pies to be part of a global tournament stew? Not everyone, it seemed, would buy into the company line: It's for the good of the sport. But with the future of pro water skiing potentially on the line, that's exactly what they've done, and for 1997 the table is set for the first World Cup of Water Skiing.
“Something had to be done or the sport would suffer,” said International Water Ski Federation president Andres Botero.
The historical meeting of the minds happened in September at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland, where the sport's power brokers agreed to turn pro water skiing into a global village of sorts. Under the sponsorship of Cafi de Colombia, the World Cup will string together 17 tournaments and offer skiers a winner-take-all purse at the end of the season (for men's and women's jump and men's and women's slalom). A precursor to the new World Cup came in early 1996 with the inaugural International Cup, also sponsored by Cafi de Colombia, which meshed 14 tournaments to determine champions in men's slalom, jump and wakeboarding, but with no cash prize at the end of the season. The 1997 World Cup bulks up the schedule and gives the skiers a nice pot for incentive, but the significance is much more broad. The fact that such a diverse group of influential organizers and dignitaries have shaken hands for the simple good of the sport is a development for the ages.
Says IWSF's Botero: “It's time for the sport to take a big step, and this is one of the biggest since the federation was founded 50 years ago.”
