The World Games

International World Games Association (IWGA)

IWGA logo
First event 1981 – Santa Clara, California, United States
Occur every 4 years
Last event 2017 – Wrocław, Poland
Purpose Multi-sport event for sports and disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games
President José Perurena López
Website TheWorldGames.org

The World Games, first held in 1981, are an international multi-sport event, meant for sports, or disciplines or events within a sport, that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The World Games are organised and governed by the International World Games Association (IWGA), recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The World Games are held every four years, one year after the Summer Olympic Games. After the World Games in Wrocław, Poland, in July 2017, the next host city will be Birmingham (Alabama), USA.

A number of the sports that were on the programme of The World Games have been discontinued because they are now included in the programme of the Olympic Games, for example badminton, beach volleyball, trampolining, rugby sevens, taekwondo, triathlon and women's weightlifting. Other sports have been Olympic sports in the past (like tug of war).

Some of the sports that are held at The World Games are acrobatic gymnastics, ultimate, orienteering, karate, powerlifting, finswimming, squash, korfball, billiards, water skiing, and dance sport. The sports that are included in The World Games are limited by the facilities available in the host city; no new facilities may be constructed for the games. Between 25 and 30 sports have been included in the official programme of The World Games. In addition, the IWGA, in coordination with the host city, can invite some sport to participate in the "invitational" programme. No World Games medals are awarded to invitational sports.

To become part of The World Games programme, the sport must be widely spread in the world and the specific international sports federation must be a member of the IWGA. In each sport, only the best athletes or teams may participate, as determined by the international sports federations. In most classes, it is necessary to qualify by a top ranking at the world championships or a qualification tournament to be able to participate.

Editions

Host cities of The World Games
Year Edition Location Hosts Opened by Athletes Countries Official
Sports 		Invitational
Sports
1981 1 Santa Clara[1]  United States Un Yong Kim 1745 58 15 1
1985 2 London  United Kingdom Charles Palmer 1227 57 20 1
1989 3 Karlsruhe  West Germany Richard von Weizsäcker 1206 50 17 2
1993 4 The Hague  Netherlands Beatrix of the Netherlands 2264 72 22 4
1997 5 Lahti  Finland Martti Ahtisaari 1379 73 22 6
2001 6 Akita  Japan Atsuko Toyama 1968 93 22 5
2005 7 Duisburg  Germany Otto Schily 2464 93 27 6
2009 8 Kaohsiung  Republic of China (Taiwan)
under the IWGA Designation:
 Chinese Taipei		 Ma Ying-jeou 2536 84 26 5
2013 9 Cali  Colombia Angelino Garzón 2982 103 26 5
2017 10 Wrocław  Poland Thomas Bach 3168 102 27 4
2021 11 Birmingham[2]  United States

Sports/Disciplines

These are the official sports/disciplines of The World Games programme.[3]

Artistic & Dance Sports

Ball Sports

Martial Arts

Precision Sports

Strength Sports

Trend Sports

Invitational Sports

All-time medal table

Through the 2017 World Games

Ranked by total medals:

Top ten total medal counts[5][6][7]
Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Italy 153 143 140 436
2  United States 141 131 109 381
3  Germany 137 111 138 386
4  Russia[lower-alpha 1] 136 111 72 319
5  France 101 102 105 308
6  China 68 55 27 150
7  United Kingdom 60[lower-alpha 2] 61 89 210
8  Japan 55 38 53 146
9  Ukraine 44 47 36 127
10  Spain 42 42 42 126
  1. ↑ The Soviet Union, which amassed 36 total medals in 1989, is counted separately from its successor states, including Russia. This is consistent with the separate counting of medals for other states that sub-divided into their constituent successor states following their initial participation in the World Games. These include Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia) and Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).
  2. ↑ The 1981 mixed badminton title was won by a pair of players from Sweden and Great Britain. Both nations are counted as having won a gold medal.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Santa Clara, USA 1981 Programme Sports". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  2. ↑ Bryant, Joseph D. (January 22, 2015). "Birmingham wins! City chosen as site for 2021 World Games". www.al.com. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ "TWG2017 Documents". theworldgames.org. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  4. ↑ First time official sport in 2017.
  5. ↑ "Results of the World Games". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  6. ↑ "The World Games 2013 Cali Medal Tally". sportresult.com. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  7. ↑ "International Sumo Federation – World Games". Retrieved 2015-11-01.
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