International World Games Association
The International World Games Association (IWGA) is an international association, recognized by the IOC, that organizes every four years since 1981 the multi-sport event called the World Games.
History
The IWGA was founded during 1981 in Seoul, Korea, as World Games Council by 12 international sports federations with a world-wide dissemination, of that were not yet part of the olympic games. 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 organization. In 1996 the World Games Council was renamed into International World Games Association. Since its creation, the number of member federations has increased to 37 with the most recent admission being the International Federation of Muaythai Amateur in April 2014.
Membership
Federations that intend to become a member of the IWGA have to be part of SportAccord. The IWGA itself is also a member of SportAccord and is represented on its council. Sports that want to be recognised by the IWGA need to have a world-wide significance but actually must not be in the programme of the olympic games.
