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.
Alberto Tomba is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Italy. He was the dominant technical skier in the late 1980s and 1990s. At 182 cm and 90 kg, his powerful build was a contrast to the lighter, more traditional technical skiers who prioritised agility over muscle. Tomba was able to take advantage of the introduction of spring-loaded ski gates which replaced the older, solid gates in the early 1980s by using his power to maintain a faster, more direct line through courses. Tomba won three Olympic gold medals, two World Championships, and nine World Cup season titles: four in slalom, four in giant slalom, and one overall title. He was popularly called Tomba la Bomba.
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.
Piero "Pierino" Gros is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from northwestern Italy. He won the gold medal in slalom at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, and was the World Cup overall champion in 1974.
Tobias Angerer is a German cross-country skier, and skis with the SC Vachendorf club. He graduated from the Skigymnasium Berchtesgaden in 1996. His occupation is "Sports Soldier". Angerer has been competing since 1996.
Michael Hazelwood is a retired British water skier and a was the world overall champion in 1977.
Louis Philip "Louie" Vito III is an Italian-American professional snowboarder. He is an Olympian, Winter X Games, and U.S. Grand Prix Champion.
George Joseph Cash was an American professional water skier. During his career Cash won four Masters, three U.S. Nationals, and two World Championships.
Alex Fontana is a Greek-Swiss racing driver currently racing as a professional driver in the 2023 GT World Challenge Europe for Car Collection Motorsport. He is a freelance driver with an open contract able to race for different teams and different manufacturers at the same time. When he is not racing, he works as a coach and driving instructor in Europe, America, and China, while commentating the Formula 1 Grands Prix for Swiss television with RSI.
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.
Water skiing competitions at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto was held from July 20 to 23 at the Ontario Place West Channel. The competition was split into two disciplines, water skiing and wakeboarding. Men and women will contest the water skiing events and the wakeboard board competition is only open to men. Therefore, there will be a total of nine medal events in the sport.
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 Ontario Place West Channel, also known as the Toronto Western Beaches Watercourse is a "flat water" training and competition centre for rowing, paddling, and water sports located on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Malibu Boats is an American manufacturer of recreational boats, founded in Merced, California in 1982, and currently headquartered in Loudon, Tennessee with additional production facilities in New South Wales, Australia. Malibu is "the world's largest manufacturer of watersports towboats", used both recreationally and in water skiing and wakeboarding events.
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.
This article lists the in the water and on the water forms of aquatic sports for 2019.
This article lists the in the water and on the water forms of aquatic sports for 2020.
The U.S. Professional Water Ski Tour was an annual standardized series of professional water ski tournaments held across the United States and Canada. The tour began in 1984. Tour stops were typically held on public water in metropolitan areas designed to draw large crowds and were televised on cable networks such as ESPN. The tour ceased in 2002.
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.
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns water ski program is a co-ed collegiate water ski team that represents the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the National Collegiate Water Ski Association. It is one of the two most successful college programs in the sport's history, having won 10 national championships – in 1995, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Since 1993, it has finished no lower than third place at any national championships.
