Water skiing is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires sufficient area on a stretch of water, one or two skis, a tow boat with tow rope, two or three people, and a personal flotation device. In addition, the skier must have adequate upper and lower body strength, muscular endurance, and good balance.
The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang and the alpine ski team directors from France and the USA. It was soon backed by International Ski Federation president Marc Hodler during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966 at Portillo, Chile, and became an official FIS event in the spring of 1967 after the FIS Congress at Beirut, Lebanon.
Barefoot skiing is water skiing behind a motorboat without the use of water skis, commonly referred to as "barefooting". Barefooting requires the skier to travel at higher speeds (30–45 mph/48–72 km/h) than conventional water skiing. The necessary speed required to keep the skier upright varies by the weight of the barefooter and can be approximated by the following formula: + 20, where W is the skier's weight in pounds and the result is in miles per hour. It is an act performed in show skiing, and on its own.
Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.
Tina Maze is a retired Slovenian World Cup alpine ski racer.
The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) is the world governing body for all towed water sports. Founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1946, it is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the sole authority governing all towed water sports and has 91 affiliated member federations worldwide. The IWWF is also an affiliate member of the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) and is one of the seven founding sports of the World Games.
Theodore Sharp Ligety is a retired American alpine ski racer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and an entrepreneur, having cofounded Shred Optics. Ligety won the combined event at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and the giant slalom race at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. He is also a five-time World Cup champion in giant slalom. Ligety won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2011 World Championships. He successfully defended his world title in giant slalom in 2013 in Schladming, Austria, where he also won an unexpected gold medal in the super-G and a third gold medal in the super combined.
The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2007 were the 39th FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, held 2–18 February in Åre, Sweden. Åre previously hosted the world championships in 1954, and often hosts late season World Cup events.
Kris LaPoint is an American former professional water skier. During his career he set or tied the world record on seven occasions and won 14 major championships. In 2008 he was inducted into the Water Ski Hall of Fame. He is the older brother of water skier Bob LaPoint.
Andrew Henry Mapple was a British-American professional water skier. Competing professionally between 1981 and 2004, Mapple is regarded as the greatest slalom skier of all time. During his career he won six World Championships, 168 professional events, and set or tied the world record on eleven occasions.
Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian-Dutch former World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competed primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles and many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom, he is considered by many, including his former rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be the best alpine skier in history. He won a total of 67 World Cup races, ranking second on the male all-time list.
George Joseph Cash was an American professional water skier. During his career Cash won four Masters, three U.S. Nationals, and two World Championships.
David Ryding is an English World Cup alpine ski racer who specialises in slalom. Widely considered to be the greatest British skier of all time, he has competed for Great Britain in four Olympics, seven World Championships, and won the Europa Cup. Ryding's best World Cup result was a victory in 2022 Kitzbühel slalom, the first victory for any British athlete at that level in Alpine skiing.
Kristaps Zvejnieks is an Alpine ski racer and inline Alpine slalom racer from Latvia. He competed for Latvia at the 2010 Winter Olympics. He competed in slalom and giant slalom and his best result was a 37th place in the slalom. He competes in FIS, CIT, EC and WC levels. He had his first World Cup start in Schladming on 24 January 2012.
Keith St. Onge is a professional barefoot water skier. He holds the record for the most U.S. National Overall Pro titles at fourteen, a record previously held by Ron Scarpa. Keith is a two-time World Barefoot Champion, winning Overall titles in 2006 and 2008.
Jon J Franklin is a sports marketing and sports television business executive who is currently Chief Executive Officer of the revitalized World Pro Ski Tour and Chief Executive Officer of a now re-surging "Ski Racing Media", the worlds leading digital publication focused on alpine ski racing. The World Pro Ski Tour, begun in 1968, is the world's number one professional head to head dual format ski race tour. Ski Racing Media has for over 50 years been known as the "Bible of the Sport" for Alpine ski racing news. Through the start of 2018, Franklin was CEO of Glory Sports International, the parent company of Glory Kickboxing that was seen on ESPN in the USA along with UFC Fightpass and Veronica/SBS Holland and others in more than 170 countries. Franklin began working with Glory in 2012 and joined full time as CEO in 2014. Under Franklin's leadership in 2017 Glory was named the World's leading Kickboxing promotion by Combat Press and one of the World's most influential combat sports promotions by Fox Sports that same year. Franklin continued at Glory as USA Promoter and Chief Development Officer in 2018 and early 2019. In this role he secured Monster Energy as Glory's first Global sponsor. From 1999 through 2002 Franklin was President of Golden Gloves boxing. To be noted, Jon J Franklin has been a strong supporter of women's sports at the highest levels, having brought female fighters into Golden Gloves during his tenure as President, started a women's division of Glory Kickboxing while he was CEO and in 2022 brought women's ski racing into the World Pro Ski Tour with equal pay racing the same courses as the men.
The Lauberhorn ski races (Lauberhorn World Cup alpine ski races are among the highest-attended winter sports events in the world, attracting around 30,000 spectators each year. An established attraction is the airshow by the Patrouille Suisse, the aerobatic demonstration team of the Swiss Air Force. The 2016 races were held 15–17 January.
Chris Parrish is an American professional water skier. From 15 May 2005 to 2 June 2013 Parrish held the world record for Slalom skiing. During that time he tied his record once and beat it twice. In addition to his world records, he has won nine major championships, and is regarded as one of the most dominant athletes in water skiing.
Michael "Mike" Kjellander is a Swedish former professional water skier. He won the US Pro Tour 21 times, two times Masters champion, one-time US Open champion, 15 times European champion, 32 times national champion, two silver and one bronze from World Championship, and one-time world record holder. He specialized in slalom and jump but was initially also successful as an overall skier. He is still the national current record holder in tricks with a score of 7,760 points.
Robert Pigozzi Perdomo is a Dominican water skier. He won the gold medal in Water skiing at the 2019 Pan American Games and the silver in 2023. He have won gold medals in the 2017 and the 2022 Bolivarian Games.
United States