The 2022 World Games were an international

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of interna ...

held from July 7 to 17, 2022, in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. They were the 11th

World Games The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 d ...

, a multi-sport event featuring disciplines of Olympic sports and other competitions that are not currently contested at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

; the Games featured 3,600 athletes competing in 206 medal events over 30 sports. They were originally scheduled to be held in 2021, but were postponed by one year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. They were the second edition of the World Games to be hosted by the United States since their inaugural edition in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

Bidding process

The cities that bid for the 2022 Games were: *

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...

, Peru *

Ufa Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...

, Russia *

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, United States

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

also considered bids. Cities paid a $125,000 application fee, and submitted information about "venues, infrastructure, volunteers, budget, transportation and other elements". Birmingham's bid, publicly announced in June 2014, was presented by Edgar Welden, Scott Myers, and David Benck. It was the only American city authorized to make a bid for these games. Myers, the executive director of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, said the bid was "a dream, but it's not a pipe dream. It's attainable." At the time, organizers projected a budget of $75 million, and the

Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality * ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record * "Greater" (song), by MercyMe, 2014 *Greater Bank, an Australian ...

anticipated a windfall of between $224.4 million and $288.6 million in out-of-town dollars. On January 22, 2015, at its meeting in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

, the

International World Games Association The International World Games Association, abbreviated as IWGA, is an international association, recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), that organises every four years, beginning in 1981, the multi-sport event called The World Ga ...

(IWGA) elected Birmingham as host of the 2021 World Games. On April 4, 2020, the Games were postponed to 2022 due to the

and the associated postponement of the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

Venues

Venues for The World Games 2022 include: * Avondale Park – archery *

Barber Motorsports Park Barber Motorsports Park is an multi-purpose racing facility located in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built by George W. Barber, and includes the Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum. It has been the site of the IndyCar Series' Grand Prix of Alab ...

– air sports (

canopy piloting Canopy piloting (also known as swooping) encompasses several disciplines, all involving the flight of a skydiving parachute. "Swooping" is a form of canopy piloting associated with advanced skydiving. Given the close proximity to the ground dur ...

) *

Bessie Estell Park Bessie is a feminine given name, often a diminutive form (hypocorism) of Elizabeth, Beatrice and other names since the 16th century. It is sometimes a name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People * Bessie Abott (1878-19 ...

– boules sports *

Birmingham Crossplex The Birmingham CrossPlex is a $46 million indoor track and aquatic facility developed by the City of Birmingham, Alabama as the centerpiece of the redevelopment of the Alabama State Fairgrounds near Five Points West. The facility's 200-meter hyd ...

Bill Harris Arena The W. F. "Bill" Harris State Fair Arena (called Bill Harris Arena or Fair Park Arena) is a 5,000-seat multipurpose indoor arena located at the Alabama State Fairgrounds. The arena is used primarily for basketball, but also hosts concerts and ot ...

: artistic skating, inline hockey :* Natatorium: canoe polo, finswimming, lifesaving :* Indoor Track: wheelchair rugby *

Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

:* Concert Hall: powerlifting :* East Exhibition Hall: floorball, korfball :*

Legacy Arena Legacy Arena (formerly known as the BJCC Coliseum and the BJCC Arena) is an arena located at the Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Alabama. The arena seats 17,654 for sporting events, 19,000 for concerts and 8,000 in a the ...

: dancesport (Latin, rock n roll, standard), gymnastics (acrobatic, aerobic, rhythmic, trampoline and tumbling) :* North Exhibition Hall: bowling :* Sheraton Hotel Ballroom: billiards sports * Birmingham Southern College :*

Bill Battle Coliseum Bill Battle Coliseum is a 2,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Birmingham, Alabama. The arena opened in 1981 and is home to the Birmingham-Southern College Panthers basketball team. The arena will be the venue for karate, jujitsu, and wushu tao ...

: ju-jitsu, karate, wushu :* BSC Panther Soccer Field: fistball :* campus: orienteering (sprint) * Boutwell Auditorium – kickboxing, muay thai, sumo *

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, also known as The Hoover Met, is a former minor league baseball stadium located in Hoover, Alabama, United States, a suburb of Birmingham. It was home of the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League from 1988 to ...

– softball * John Carroll Catholic High School – flying disc *

Legion Field Legion Field is an outdoor stadium in the southeastern United States in Birmingham, Alabama, primarily designed to be used as a venue for American football, but occasionally used for other large outdoor events. Opened in 1927, it is named in ho ...

–

flag football Flag football is a variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end a down. The sport has a strong amateur following ...

* Oak Mountain State Park :* Double Oak Lake: canoe marathon, water skiing and wakeboard :* nature: orienteering (middle distance) * Powell Steam Plant – track speedskating, road speedskating *

Protective Stadium Protective Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium owned and operated by the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Authority in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. Its naming rights are provided by the Protective Life company, which will pay $1 million ...

– opening and closing ceremonies, air sports (

drone racing First Person View, or FPV, drone racing, is a sport where participants control " drones" (typically small radio-controlled aircraft or quadcopters), equipped with cameras while wearing head-mounted displays showing the live stream camera fee ...

) * Railroad Park – duathlon (start and finish), orienteering (sprint relay) *

Regions Field Regions Field is the name of a minor league baseball park in the Southside community of Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. It is the home field for the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League, and replaced Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in the Birmingham ...

– orienteering (part of sprint relay) *

Sloss Furnaces Sloss Furnaces is a National Historic Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. It operated as a pig iron-producing blast furnace from 1882 to 1971. After closing, it became one of the first industrial sites (and the only blast furnace ...

– beach handball, dancesport (breaking), gymnastics (parkour), sport climbing *

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

PNC Field PNC Field is a 10,000-seat minor league baseball stadium that is located in Moosic, Pennsylvania in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area that was built in 1989 and rebuilt in 2013. The stadium is home to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRi ...

: lacrosse :* University Recreation Center: racquetball, squash :* track and field complex: tug of war

The Games

Sports

The 2022 World Games programme featured 30 official sports including 54 disciplines encompassing 206 events. This was the first time that

, canoe marathon, breaking, women's

fistball Fistball is a sport of European origin, primarily played in the German-speaking nations of Austria, Germany and Switzerland, as well as in Brazil. The objective of the game is similar to volleyball, in that teams try to hit a ball over a net ...

, kickboxing, and parkour were included in the World Games as official sports.

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

and

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velo ...

returned to the official World Games programme. Invitational sports comprising 17 events included

duathlon Duathlon is an athletic event that consists of a running leg, followed by a cycling leg and then another running leg in a format similar to triathlons. The International Triathlon Union governs the sport internationally. Distance and format ...

wheelchair rugby Wheelchair rugby (originally murderball, and known as quad rugby in the United States) is a team sport for athletes with a disability. It is practised in over twenty-five countries around the world and is a summer Paralympic sport. The US na ...

, wushu (taolu) and men's

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

. Both men's and women's field lacrosse were played in a six-a-side format. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sports discipline. *^AD *^AD *^T *^P *^AD *^B *^P * *^P *^T *^B *^AD * *^T *^B *^I *^B *^T *^B *^M *^M *^M *^B * *^T *^M *^T *^AD * ^S *^B *^AD *^T *^B *^T *^B *^M *^T *^AD *^S *^T * * ;Notes :AD: Artistic and Dance sports :B: Ball sports :I: Invitational sports, selected by the host city :M: Martial arts :P: Precision sports :S: Strength sports :T: Trend sports

Participating nations

On 19 February 2021, the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

announced that certain

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n athletes would be allowed to compete under the designation "ROC" (for Russian Olympic Committee) at the

Tokyo 2020 The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

and Beijing 2022 Winter Games. This penalty also applies through end of 2022 and would have been applied to events affiliated with the

, such as The World Games. Following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

, athletes from

along with

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

were barred from the 2022 World Games, per the IOC's recommendations. Russia originally qualified 62 athletes while Belarus was set to send 11 athletes. Part of the ticket revenue was donated to Ukraine for rebuilding sports venues after the Russian invasion of the country. Athletes from 110 National Olympic Committees were scheduled to participate. In total, athletes from 99 delegations competed at the 2022 World Games. The only representative team in the 2022 World Games not represented by a National Olympic Committee were the

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

teams competing in lacrosse.

Costs

The games cost $65.1 million to produce. However, after only generating $51 million in revenue from sponsorships and tickets, it resulted in a current loss of $14.1 million. In August 2022, Games CEO Nick Sellers said in a statement: “We have every intention to raise the associated funds and pay our vendors.”

Calendar

Source

Medal table

In the Women's 4 × 50 m obstacle relay of the

lifesaving Lifesaving is the act involving rescue, resuscitation and first aid. It often refers to water safety and aquatic rescue; however, it could include ice rescue, flood and river rescue, swimming pool rescue and other emergency medical services. ...

competition, two gold medals were awarded and thus no silver medal was awarded. In the Women's 500 m sprint of the track speed skating competition, only the one gold medal was awarded as the remaining competitors in the final were disqualified.

Medal design

The event's medal design was unveiled in February 2022.

Community Engagement

The World Games 2022 Experience Delivered by Shipt

In March 2019, The World Games 2022 unveiled a mobile experience, designed to generate excitement for the event and educate the local community on the sports of The 2022 Games. The traveling Mercedes Sprinter Van includes a rock climbing wall, a sumo wrestling activity, photo opportunities and an interactive trivia game where guests can win prizes. The van made its official debut at the 15th Annual MortgageBanc Chili Cook-Off on March 2, 2019. It continues to tour throughout 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

World of Opportunity

In June 2019, The World Games 2022 announced the kickoff of their supplier diversity program, World of Opportunity. The program, which was unveiled to an audience of 400 at the Birmingham Crossplex, allows certified, diverse businesses to compete for contracts to provide goods and services for The World Games 2022. The categories accepted include (but are not limited to) transportation services, event production, security, promotional items, merchandise, sports equipment, food service, technology, printing, medical supplies, event equipment, waste removal and construction services.

Broadcasting

In July 2021, it was announced that

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...

would broadcast one-hour highlights shows on each of the ten days of competition, and two additional one-hour specials will be shown on other CBS channels and on

Paramount+ Paramount+ is an American subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures (including CBS Studios), Paramount Media Networks (formerly Viacom Media ...

Olympic Channel Olympic Channel is an over-the-top Internet television service operated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was launched on August 21, 2016, alongside the closing of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The service aims to maintain year-round ...

also carried coverage.

References

External links

Official websiteResults book
{{EventsAt2022WorldGames

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

Sports in Birmingham, Alabama International sports competitions hosted by the United States Sports competitions in Alabama Multi-sport events in the United States

Sports events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Sports events affected by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine