World Games

This article is about the international sports event. For the unrelated video game, see World Games (video game).

International World Games Association (IWGA)

First event	1981 – Santa Clara, California, United States
Occur every	4 years
Last event	2017 – Wrocław, Poland
Purpose	To conduct multi-sport events 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. The next host city will be Birmingham, Alabama, USA in 2021.

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.

Contents

• 
  1 Editions
  


• 
  2 Sports/disciplines
  
  
  
  • 
    2.1 Artistic and dance sports
    
  
  
  • 
    2.2 Ball sports
    
  
  
  • 
    2.3 Martial arts
    
  
  
  • 
    2.4 Precision sports
    
  
  
  • 
    2.5 Strength sports
    
  
  
  • 
    2.6 Trend sports
    
  
  
  • 
    2.7 Invitational sports
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  3 All-time medal table
  


• 
  4 See also
  


• 
  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Editions

1981

1985

1989

1993

1997

2001

2005

2009

2013

2017

2021

Host cities of The World Games

Year	Edition	Host City	Host Country	Opened by	Athletes	Countries	Official Sports	Invitational Sports	Top of the medal table
1981	1	Santa Clara[1]	United States	Kim Un-yong	1745	58	15	1	United States
1985	2	London	United Kingdom	Charles Palmer	1227	57	20	1	Italy
1989	3	Karlsruhe	West Germany	Richard von Weizsäcker	1206	50	17	2	Italy
1993	4	The Hague	Netherlands	Beatrix of the Netherlands	2264	72	22	4	Germany
1997	5	Lahti	Finland	Martti Ahtisaari	1379	73	22	6	United States
2001	6	Akita	Japan	Atsuko Toyama	1968	93	22	5	Russia
2005	7	Duisburg	Germany	Otto Schily	2464	93	27	6	Russia
2009	8	Kaohsiung	Chinese Taipei1	Ma Ying-jeou	2536	101	26	5	Russia
2013	9	Cali	Colombia	Angelino Garzón	2982	103	26	5	Italy
2017	10	Wrocław	Poland	Thomas Bach	3168	102	27	4	Russia
2021	11	Birmingham[2]	United States
2025	12

¹The Republic of China (Taiwan) is recognised as Chinese Taipei by IWGA and the majority of international organisations it participates in due to political considerations and Cross-Strait relations with the People's Republic of China.

Sports/disciplines

Main article: World Games sports

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

Artistic and dance sports

• Acrobatic gymnastics


• Aerobic gymnastics


• Artistic roller skating


• 
  Dancesport (Latin, salsa, standard)


• Rhythmic gymnastics


• 
  Trampoline (synchronized, double mini-trampoline)


• Tumbling

Ball sports

• 
  Beach handball^[4]
  


• Canoe polo


• Fistball


• Korfball


• Floorball


• Lacrosse


• Racquetball


• Squash

Martial arts

• 
  Ju-Jitsu (Duo, Fighting, Ne-Waza)


• 
  Karate (Kata, Kumite)


• Sumo


• Muay Thai

Precision sports

• 
  Archery (Field, Target)


• 
  Billiards (Carom, Pool, Snooker)


• 
  Boules Sports (Boule lyonnaise, Pétanque, Raffa)


• 
  Bowling (Ten-pin bowling)

Strength sports

• Powerlifting


• 
  Tug of War (Men Outdoor, Women Indoor)

Trend sports

• 
  Air Sports (Parachuting, Glider Acrobatics, Paramotoring)


• Finswimming


• 
  Flying Disc (Ultimate)


• Inline Hockey


• 
  Lifesaving (Pool)


• Orienteering


• 
  Roller Speed Skating (Track)


• Sport Climbing


• 
  Water Ski & Wakeboard
  

Invitational sports

• American Football


• Indoor Rowing


• Kickboxing


• Speedway

All-time medal table

Main article: All-time World Games medal table

Through the 2017 World Games

Top ten total medal counts^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Italy	153	145	142	440
2	United States	142	131	109	382
3	Germany	137	111	138	386
4	Russia[a]	137	110	72	319
5	France	101	102	105	308
6	China	68	55	27	150
7	Great Britain[b]	61	89	210	360
8	Japan	55	38	53	146
9	Ukraine[c]	47	36	125	208
10	Spain	42	42	42	126
Totals (10 nations)		943	859	1023	2825

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.
   


3. 
   ^ In 2009, Ukraine was stripped of two gold medals in bodybuilding for doping, which are not included here.
   

See also

• 
  Sports portal
  

• Olympic Games


• Commonwealth Games


• Universiade


• African Games


• Asian Games


• European Games


• Pacific Games


• Pan American Games

References

1. 
   ^ "Santa Clara, USA 1981 Programme Sports". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2015-11-05..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


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. 
   ^ "2009 Kaohsiung: Doping Violations". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
   


7. 
   ^ "The World Games 2009 Kaosiung (sic)". International Sumo Federation. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
   


8. 
   ^ "The World Games 2013 Cali Medal Tally". sportresult.com. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
   


9. 
   ^ "International Sumo Federation – World Games". Retrieved 2015-11-01.
   

External links

• Official website


• All-time Medal table


• The World Games 2017 Wrocław

v t e World Games
Santa Clara 1981 London 1985 Karlsruhe 1989 The Hague 1993 Lahti 1997 Akita 2001 Duisburg 2005 Kaohsiung 2009 Cali 2013 Wrocław 2017 Birmingham 2021
International World Games Association World Games sports All-time World Games medal table

v t e Sports of the World Games program
Italics indicate invitational sports at the 2013 World Games
Artistic and dance sports	Acrobatic gymnastics Aerobic gymnastics Artistic roller skating Dancesport Rhythmic gymnastics Trampoline
Ball sports	Beach handball Canoe polo Fistball Korfball Matkot Padel Racquetball Rugby sevens Softball Squash
Martial arts	Jujutsu Karate Sumo Wushu
Precision sports	Billiards Boules Bowling Field archery
Strength sports	Bodybuilding Powerlifting Tug of war
Trend sports	Canoe marathon Duathlon Finswimming Flying disc Lifesaving Orienteering Parachuting Paragliding Roller in-line hockey Speed roller skating Sport climbing Water skiing
Past sports	Bodybuilding Casting Indoor field hockey Netball Roller hockey Surfing Tchoukball Tumbling Wakeboarding
Sports at the World Games International World Games Association

v t e Sports at the World Games
Official sports	Air sports Artistic roller skating Beach handball Bowling Boules Canoe polo Cue sports Dancesport Field archery Finswimming Fistball Flying disc Gymnastics Inline hockey Inline speed skating Ju-Jitsu Karate Korfball Lifesaving Muay Thai Orienteering Powerlifting Racquetball Sport climbing Squash Sumo Tug of war Wakeboarding Water skiing
Past sports	Badminton Baseball Bodybuilding Casting Indoor cycling Lacrosse Netball Pelota Roller hockey Rugby sevens Sambo Softball Surfing Taekwondo Triathlon Weightlifting
Demonstration sports	Aikido American football Bahn golf Baton twirling Boomerang Dragon boat Duathlon Equestrian Floorball Gateball Indoor hockey Indoor trial Military pentathlon Pesapallo Road roller speed skating Tchoukball Water polo Wushu

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