One sport. One global community. United by rivers.
United Rafting is the worldwide governing body for rafting, created from the unification of the International Rafting Federation (IRF) and the World Rafting Federation (WRF).
We bring together National Federations, athletes, river guides, officials, organisers and people who share the same connection with rivers and whitewater.
Our mission starts with sport, but does not end at the finish line.
United Rafting governs international competition and develops common rules and standards for the sport, while supporting National Federations in growing rafting at every level. From grassroots participation to World Championships, from athlete development to guide education, our work is built around a simple objective: giving rafting a strong, united and sustainable international future.
Rivers are our playing field and part of our identity. Protecting them, promoting responsible access to nature and recognising the communities and territories that make rafting possible are therefore part of how we see the development of our sport.
Different rivers. Different cultures. One rafting community.
History & Heritage
Two histories. One shared heritage.
It was created by bringing together two organisations that shaped international rafting through different experiences, communities and approaches: the International Rafting Federation (IRF) and the World Rafting Federation (WRF).
Their histories are now part of one common heritage.
International Rafting Federation — IRF
Founded in 1997, the International Rafting Federation accompanied rafting through more than two decades of international development.
Its history grew around competitions, National Federations and a worldwide community of athletes, organisers and river professionals. Alongside competitive rafting, the IRF developed extensive experience in river guide training and education, establishing programmes and technical knowledge that became recognised across the international rafting community.
That experience, and the people who built it over the years, are part of United Rafting today.
World Rafting Federation — WRF
Founded in 2018, the World Rafting Federation brought another international network, sporting structure and vision into the development of rafting.
Through its National Federations, international competitions and institutional activity, the WRF worked to strengthen rafting as an organised sport and to expand its presence within national and international sporting structures.
Its events, expertise, relationships and community are equally part of the foundations on which United Rafting is built.
The unification
For years, IRF and WRF followed separate paths while sharing the same sport, the same rivers and, ultimately, many of the same ambitions.
Their unification changed that.
Rather than allowing two international structures to continue developing in parallel, the decision was made to bring their histories, expertise and communities together and build a single international federation.
United Rafting is the result of that choice.
It does not erase the identities or achievements of IRF and WRF. It carries them forward as a shared heritage: the competitions organised, the programmes developed, the knowledge accumulated and, above all, the contribution of the people who built international rafting over the years.
Our heritage. Our next chapter.
The history of international rafting belongs to everyone who helped create it — athletes who raced, guides who passed on their knowledge, officials and volunteers who made competitions possible, National Federations that developed the sport at home, and communities that welcomed rafting onto their rivers.
United Rafting brings that history together.
Not as an endpoint, but as the foundation for what comes next.
One federation. A shared heritage. A new chapter for rafting.
