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There are several competitions that lay claim to be the World Salsa Championships.

Mayan World Salsa championships

The oldest is probably the Mayan World Salsa Championships, hosted by Club Mayan in LA. (See http://www.clubmayan.com). Publishing video-clips on this site did much to publicise salsa, especially LA-style. For many years Johnny Vazquez dominated this competition before relocating to teach throughout Europe.

WSF Championships

The 1st Official World Salsa Championships, was organized by the International Dance Organization or IDO. Isaac and Laura Altman the 2000 IDO World Salsa Champions later formed the World Salsa Federation in 2001 which claims to be the "recognized World Governing Body" for Salsa Dancing and the "Official" World Salsa Championships.

The WSF has been holding its own World Championships since 2001. The WSF is recognized by the Amateur Athletic Union, the largest amateur sporting organization in the U.S. with over 800,000 members. Isaac and Laura were successful in bringing Salsa and DanceSport as official sports in the Junior Olympic Games in 2002 and Isaac became its National Director.

World Salsa Championships (Las Vegas)

2005 saw the birth of an alternative World Salsa Championship

The World Salsa Championships are annual competitions held in Las Vegas. The championships were fathered by Salsa promoter Albert Torres and first held in 2005; the second championships are to be held December 14-16, 2006. Competitions are held in four categories, namely On 1, On 2, Cabaret and Groups.