International Bowling Federation

The Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ) was founded in 1952, with 11 members – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, West Germany, and Yugoslavia. The first World Bowling Championships were staged two years later, in 1954, in Helsinki, Finland. The fifth FIQ World Tournament, held in 1963 in Ciudad de México, marked the first year women’s bowling was an official event at the championships, along with the men’s competition.

Bowling later appeared only once at the Olympic Games, with ten-pin bowling individual demonstration events for men and women staged at Seoul 1988. Its international governing body would be renamed to World Bowling (WB) in April 2014, and to its current name, International Bowling Federation (IBF), in November 2020, following an Extra Ordinary Congress held in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Apart from the ten-pin bowling discipline, the IBF also oversees the international development of nine-pin bowling and any variations similar to bowling, and of Para bowling. It is currently one of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC)-recognized international federations and a member of the Association of the IOC-recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF), with 114 affiliated members as of January 2026. Sheikh Talal Mohammad Al-Sabah of Kuwait is its current president, and the federation’s office is based in Lausanne.