Boules

Boules is a sport covering many games similar to bowls and bocce, in which competitors throw or roll heavy balls as close as possible to a target ball. Boules-type games are traditional and popular in many European countries and are also popular in some former French colonies in Africa and Asia. They are often played in open spaces, such as town squares or parks.

Boules events were contested at the 1900 Universal Exposition alongside the 1900 Olympic Games. Until 2020, the sport was governed by the Confédération Mondiale des Sports de Boules (CMSB), which was founded on 21 December 1985, in Monaco, and recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 15 October 1986, in Lausanne, Switzerland. The confederation was made up of three different federations: the Confederazione Boccistica Internazionale (CBI), the Fédération Internationale de Boules (FIB), and the Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FIPJP).

Boules sports would later be contested officially, by men and women, at the World Games: pétanque events from 1985 to the present (although the first edition only included a single men’s event, and the 2022 edition only included events for women); boules Lyonnaise from 2001 to the present (although the 2022 edition only included events for women), and also as an invitational sport in 1997; and raffa from 2009-2017. The CMSB would oversee these appearances of boules at the World Games until 2013. After unsuccessful tries to return its sport to the Olympic Games, the CMSB would dissolute in April 2020.

The World Pétanque and Bowls Federation (WPBF) would later be founded in 2021, integrating the three previous organizations that made up the CMSB. Although all three remain as independent governing bodies overseeing rules, championships, and sport affairs, the WPBF now serves as the official organization recognized by the World Games and similar international multi-sport events as the federation representing boules sports collectively.