IWGA — International World Games Association

What is the IWGA?

The International World Games Association is an association of international sports federations that exists to own and stage one event. Its own pages describe it as "a non-profit organisation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the official body responsible for the worldwide promotion of The World Games", and describe The World Games as "a multi-sport event staged every four years by the IWGA under the patronage of the IOC".^[1]

The IWGA states that it is a "not-for-profit independent international organisation" established in 1980, made up of 40 international sports federations.^[2] It governs no sport of its own; the federations that belong to it do that, and the IWGA's function is the programme, the host selection and the relationship with the IOC.^[2] [3]

The IWGA's own presidents page records that the association's headquarters moved from the United States to Lausanne, Switzerland during the presidency of José Perurena, which places the office there on the association's own statement.^[10]

What does the IWGA govern or do?

The IWGA's substantive work is deciding what goes on the programme of The World Games and who hosts it. Its published criteria are that a sport must not be on the programme of the immediately preceding Summer or Winter Olympic or Paralympic Games, that selection is made in consultation with the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee, that the sport must fit the host city's existing infrastructure, and that formats should be innovative and presentable.^[4] Membership of the association does not guarantee a place: the IWGA states plainly that "not all sports will automatically be part of the programme".^[4]

That exclusion rule is the interesting part of the relationship with the Olympic Games, and it is not applied mechanically. The confirmed Karlsruhe 2029 programme published on 3 September 2026 lists 36 sports and 62 disciplines and includes squash, sixes lacrosse and flag football — all LA28 disciplines — and Baseball5, a discipline of a sport (baseball-softball) that is on the LA28 programme.^[5] This page could not reconcile that with the stated criterion from any IWGA source it retrieved, and flags the tension rather than resolving it.

When was the IWGA founded and where is it based?

The IWGA gives 1980 as its founding year.^[2] Its own account of The World Games begins a year later: "The first edition of The World Games was held in 1981 in the USA", at Santa Clara, and the association's edition list runs from there through London in 1985 and Karlsruhe in 1989 to Chengdu in 2025 and Karlsruhe again in 2029.^[6]

Founding, first edition and renaming are three different things here and the association's pages separate the first two. The IWGA states that the body was initially called the World Games Council and took the name IWGA in 1984, and dates its inaugural meeting to Seoul.^[10] [9]

The current president is Anna Arzhanova, elected on 25 April 2026; her predecessor José Perurena held the office from 2014 to 2026 and was president when Karlsruhe was awarded the 2029 Games at the IWGA Annual General Meeting in Esslingen on 1 May 2024.^[10] [7]

How is the IWGA recognised?

Recognition here is documentary and dual. The Olympic Charter in force from 3 February 2026 provides at Rule 3 that "the IOC may recognise IFs and associations of IFs" and that "the IOC may recognise non-governmental organisations connected with sport, operating on an international level". Separately, the bye-law to Rule 2 provides that "the IOC Executive Board may grant IOC patronage, upon such terms and conditions as it may consider appropriate, to international multisports competitions — regional, continental or worldwide".^[8] The IWGA holds both: recognition as an association, and patronage for the event.^[1]

On top of that sit two bilateral instruments. The IWGA states that "two Memoranda of Understanding have been signed between the IWGA and the IOC in 2000 and 2016", under which the IOC acknowledges the standing of The World Games, grants patronage to organising committees and provides technical assistance.^[3] The association also records that nine sports moved from its programme to the Olympic programme between 1984 and 2021, among them badminton, beach volleyball, rugby sevens, sport climbing, taekwondo, trampoline gymnastics and triathlon.^[3]

What does the IWGA organise?

The World Games is an eleven-day multi-sport games event held every four years, in the year after the Summer Olympic Games in the current cycle.^[4] The most recent edition, Chengdu 2025, drew what the IWGA records as close to 4,000 athletes from more than 110 countries and regions across 34 sports, 60 disciplines and 253 medal events.^[4]

Karlsruhe will stage the next edition from 19 to 29 July 2029, with a programme approved by the IWGA Executive Committee and the organising committee and running to 36 sports and 62 disciplines.^[5] Karlsruhe hosted the third edition in 1989 and was awarded 2029 on 1 May 2024, which the association notes makes it the first city to stage the event twice.^[7]

The IWGA also states that its sustainability position is to require no new permanent infrastructure of a host.^[2] A World Games title is a world-level result in the sport concerned but confers nothing in Olympic qualification, since by construction the sport is not on the Olympic programme at the time.^[4]

Who are its members?

The IWGA's members are international federations, 40 of them, up from the 12 that founded it.^[9] The published conditions of entry are specific: only international federations that are members of ARISF, the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations, may join; IOC recognition has been mandatory since 2014; and the IWGA Executive Committee assesses whether an applicant federation adds value to the programme.^[9]

Since 2020 federations belonging to the summer and winter Olympic federation associations can take temporary affiliate status if their sport appears on a forthcoming edition of the Games — the mechanism that allows a body such as the UCI or World Aquatics to place a non-Olympic discipline on the programme without becoming a full member.^[9]

The IWGA adds member federations from time to time. Secondary sourcing gives the International Chess Federation as the most recent admission, on 25 April 2026; this page could not corroborate that against an IWGA release.