World Bowling
| Formation | 1952 |
|---|---|
| Type | Sports federation |
| Headquarters | Arlington, Texas, United States |
|
Membership
|
134 national federations |
|
Official language
|
English, German, French, Spanish |
|
President
|
Kevin Dornberger |
| Website | World Bowling |
World Bowling (WB; known as the Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs between 1952 and April 2014) is the world governing body of nine-pin and ten-pin bowling. WB was founded in 1952 in Hamburg, Germany by officials of the International Bowling Association (founded 1926) to foster worldwide interest in amateur ten-pin and nine-pin bowling, as well as international friendship by encouraging world and zone tournaments and other competition between bowlers of different countries. WB has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee since 1979 as the governing body for bowling sports. Starting with five member federations in 1952, it grew to 141 in 2010.
WB has member federations located in all five Olympic regions. With more than 100 million participants, 10 million competitors and 250,000 bowling lanes, it is one of the largest and best organized sports in the world.
The first attempt to coordinate the sport of bowling at world level by organizing world championships and by bringing uniformity through universal playing rules, was undertaken in 1926 by Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the US with the formation of the International Bowling Association (IBA).
In December 1951 the officials of the old IBA took initiative to invite delegates from all interested countries to come to Hamburg, Germany on 27 January 1952 to discuss the status of bowling and the possible re-activation of the IBA.
Representatives of the following countries attended the meeting in Hamburg, Germany:
The unanimous decision of all present was to form a new international bowling federation. The first proposal was to make it a European federation, but it was pointed out that the US being a strong ten-pin country, may also want to affiliate. The new federation would be a worldwide international organisation with 4 different sections: One for Tenpin bowling and 3 for Ninepin bowling: Asphalt (later: Classic), Bohle and Schere.
The new organisation would be named as proposed by Mr. René Weiss from France, Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ – International federation of Bowlers). Mr. Heinz Kropp from Germany was elected as its first President. Also Section Presidents were elected: for Tenpin Bowling – Mr. Hans Berger from Sweden; for the Asphalt Section – Mr. Leopold Hatzi from Austria; for the Bohle Section – Mr. Willi Stark from Germany; and for the Schere Section – Mr. Francois van Arkels from Belgium.
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Wikipedia