The world’s very best competitive water skiers under the age of 21 have assembled in Calgary for their sports world championships, and Bragg Creek’s Megan Pelkey, a former U17 world champion, is one of a dozen athletes representing Canada on the biggest and brightest stage of her sport.
The 2025 International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) U21 World Championships began on July 28 at Calgary’s Predator Bay Water Ski Club. Running until August 3, the competition has brought together more than 110 of the sports very best, all of whom will compete among each other for international titles.
The best water skiing athletes from more than 20 countries-- including the United States, Italy, Morocco and Japan, among others-- will compete at Calgary’s Predator Bay on the Lakes of Kastynstone. Of the members of the Canadian delegation, three of them are from Alberta.
The three skill disciplines on display at the World Championships will include slalom, where athletes navigate a course of buoys at high speeds; trick, where athletes perform a series of acrobatic maneuvers; and jump, where skiers aim for maximum distance off a ramp.
The World Championships is a big moment for major sporting events in Alberta. The provincial government announced that it provided $100,000 in funding through the Major Sport Event grant program to support the planning and execution of the U21 championship.
According to the Province, the grant program provides financial assistance to support organizations in planning and hosting national and international sporting events in Alberta. The championships are expected to attract more than 40,000 spectators online and in-person and are projected to generate up to $1.3 million for Calgary’s local economy, the Alberta government stated in a press release.
“Our government is proud to support events like the World Waterski Championships,” wrote Andrew Boitchenko, the provincial Minister of Tourism and Sport, in a statement about the event. “This event gives Alberta’s waterskiing athletes the exciting opportunity to compete on home water in a world-class competition while also generating meaningful economic benefits for our local communities.”
In 2023, Pelkey, at just 16 years old, earned three gold medals at the U17 world championships in Santiago, Chile. Competing as an individual and as a part of Team Canada, Pelkey and the 12 other Canadian athletes will try and claim the top spot in the team categories-- a massive accomplishment for the Canadian athletes on their own soil.
Pelkey is a part of an impressive lineage of dominating skiers-- both in the water and on the hill. Megan and her sisters Sofia and Sarah took home nine total medals from the 2023 Canadian Water Ski Championships.
