10-14 July 2022 Student Recreation Center – University of Alabama at Birmingham
The World Games are back in the USA. (From www.theworldgames.org)
The 11th edition of The World Games will take place in Birmingham, Alabama, USA from 7th to 17th July 2022. This edition, originally planned for 2021, is postponed to 2022 because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Games celebrated their première in 1981 in Santa Clara, California, and now, a little more than 40 years later, the Games return to the USA.
The hosts expect around 3,600 athletes from over 100 countries. For the first time, the Iroquois team in Lacrosse will represent an indigenous ethnic group. The distribution between women and men is about 50:50. Thirty-four sport are included in the ten days of competition. The athletes will compete for the gold medals of The World Games in 223 medal events.
The production company ISB will produce the television signal and is selling the worldwide broadcasting rights. In addition, there will be cooperation with the Olympic Channel which will ensure that, as with TWG 2017 in Wrocław, the stories of the Games are transmitted to all parts of the world. A total of 23 competition venues will be used for TWG 2022. Birmingham is following the basic principle of the IWGA that no new sports facilities need to be built to host the Games. However, The World Games will benefit to some extent from the postponement of the Games to 2022, because by that time the new Protective Life Stadium, which was planned independently of the event, will be completed. The arena will provide a great setting for the opening ceremony on 7th July 2022 and the closing ceremony on 17th July.
The City of Birmingham was awarded the contract to host the 2021 Games in 2015. The largest city in the state of Alabama (approx. 650,000 inhabitants) beat Lima (Peru) and UFA (Russia) in the final round. Part of the concept was that the organisers would largely forego public funding and would finance the budget of a calculated 60 million dollars through private partnerships. Birmingham will also have the university’s student accommodation available for the athletes, so for the first time there will be a kind of ‘TWG village’. Also for the first time, participants and fans can get all information about the Games via a special app designed for The World Games.
As mascots, the organisers have chosen figures based on the Roman gods Vulcan and Vesta. The figure of Vulcan refers to the Vulcan statue, Birmingham, Alabama’s colossal statue, which is the world’s largest cast iron statue and considered one of the most memorable works of civic art in the United States.
Event Dates
Opening Ceremony 7 July 2022
Racquetball Competition 10-14 July 2022
TWG Plaza 8-17 July 2022
TWG Athletes Night 13 July 2022
Closing Ceremony 17 July 2022