The Badger State Games are a series of annual

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

-style

multi-sport events 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 ...

for amateur athletes from the state of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, held twice per year in Wausau. It is a member of the

National Congress of State Games The National Congress of State Games is an American nonprofit sports association, consisting of 29 full members and five developing members. NCSG members run 28 Summer Games and 10 Winter Games. The NCSG is part of the United States Olympic Committ ...

. The summer games have been held annually since they began in 1985, originally in Wisconsin's capital city of

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, then briefly in the

Fox Cities The Fox Cities of Northeastern Wisconsin are the cities, towns and villages along the Fox River as it flows from Lake Winnebago northward into Green Bay. The Fox Cities communities, as defined by its Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Vis ...

area before being relocated to their current home in Wausau in 2012. The winter games have been held in Wausau since they began in 1989.''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', 2 August 2011, Tom Held,
Badger State Games will end after 25 years
Some sports are represented at both summer and winter editions of the games.

History

The Wisconsin Amateur Sports Corporation, a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

, began organizing the first edition of the Badger State Games in 1984. The plan was closely associated with Madison's bid for the 1987 National Sports Festival, which was ultimately awarded to

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, home to t ...

. The inaugural Badger State Games were held in Madison in 1985, with ceremonies including an Olympic-style torch relay that circled the state over the course of two weeks. Wisconsin became the sixteenth state to hold a statewide multi-sport event, with the

created in 1988 to serve as their governing body. In its first few years, the event continually grew, and was met with enthusiasm from the state government and local businesses who contributed to fundraising efforts. It was consistently held in Madison during the last weekend of June. The first winter games were held in 1989 in Wausau, which exceeded attendance expectations despite temperatures of . A special snowmobile-based torch relay was held in anticipation of the Winter Games. These games also continued to be held annually, during the first weekend of February. By the end of the 1980s, the event had grown significantly and eight regional festivals were established to extend opportunities to even more athletes. Otto Breitenbach became the executive director of the Wisconsin Amateur Sports Corporation in 1988, and he was credited with raising the profile and scope of the games during his nine-year tenure.Mertz, Adam
"Badger State Games discontinued after 26-year run"
''

Wisconsin State Journal The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of September ...

,'' August 2, 2011. By 1997, when Breitenbach retired, the Badger State Games was "considered by many to be the current standard bearer" among statewide multi-sport events,Cohen, Andrew
"'Amateur Athletics At Its Finest'"
''Athletic Business,'' April 1997. and the country's largest relative to state population. At the 2006 summer games, Bill Wambach of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, a long-time competitor, broke the national high-jump record for the 80- to 84-year-old division with a jump of 1.26 meters."Flying high: Sun Prairie's Bill Wambach, 80, sets a national high jump record at the Badger State Games"
''

,'' June 26, 2006. In 2007,

American Family Insurance American Family Insurance, also abbreviated as AmFam, is an American private mutual company that focuses on property, casualty, and auto insurance, and also offers commercial insurance, life, health, and homeowners coverage as well as investm ...

became the primary sponsor of the games, and both the winter and summer events were officially renamed the American Family Insurance Badger State Games for two years."Snowmobiling, trap shooting now part of Badger State Winter Games"
La Crosse Tribune, January 26, 2008. After the 2008 summer games, the Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation announced that the event would leave Madison and move to the

region for at least three years.Robus, Clint
"Getting their final BSG kicks? These Badger State Games might be the last for some Madison participants"
''

,'' June 29, 2008. The decision was made after the Fox Cities Sports Authority offered a grant of $180,000, which the Greater Madison Visitors and Convention Bureau refused to compete with. The games had been in decline for several years up to that point, and there was no opening ceremony for the games' final year in Madison because of construction at

James Madison Memorial High School Vel Phillips Memorial High School is a public high school in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was established in 1966 and is part of the Madison Metropolitan School District. The school is named after Vel Phillips, an American attorney, pol ...

. Following the 2010 Winter Games, the Wausau/Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau withdrew its large annual contributions to the event, leaving it without a host city. The 2011 Winter Games were ultimately held at venues across the state, although many were able to remain in the Wausau area. That same year, the Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation announced that it would discontinue the Badger State Games, after operating at a loss for two years. The WSDC stated that the Games had served their purpose, and that the current market for amateur athletic events had become overly saturated, lowering participation in recent years. The Wausau/Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau agreed to purchase both the winter and summer games, holding both events in the Wausau area. It was announced that the summer games would not move to Wausau until 2015, following the completion of the WSDC's deal with the Fox Cities Sports Authority,"Badger State Winter Games - Game on! Badger State Games to continue!"
Accessed 23 October 2011 but the 2012 summer games were ultimately held in Wausau."Badger State Games make summer debut in central Wis."
,

WKOW-TV WKOW (channel 27) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Allen Media Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side, and its transmitter is located ...

, June 23, 2011. The Wausau CVB changed the format of both events in 2015, spreading the dozens of events across a period of months rather than holding them all in the same weekend. This allowed for more sports to be represented, and more athletes to participate in more events.

Sports

Summer Games

As of 2018, the summer games take place over four months and include events in 24 sports. *

5K run The 5K run is a long-distance road running competition over a distance of . Also referred to as the 5K road race, 5 km, or simply 5K, it is the shortest of the most common road running distances. It is usually distinguished from the 5000 me ...

/walk *

Adventure racing Adventure racing (also called expedition racing) is typically a multidisciplinary team sport involving navigation over an unmarked wilderness course with races extending anywhere from two hours up to two weeks in length. Some races offer solo co ...

* Archery *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

BMX racing BMX racing is a type of off-road bicycle racing. The format of BMX was derived from motocross racing. BMX bicycle races are sprint races on purpose-built off-road single-lap race tracks. The track usually consists of a starting gate for up to ...

Bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thou ...

* Cornhole *

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 ...

*Freestyle kayaking *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

Gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

Individual time trial An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' " stopwatch stage"). There are also track ...

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 ...

* Martial arts * Pickleball * Skateboarding * Soccer *

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 ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

Trap shooting Trap shooting, or trapshooting in North America, is one of the three major disciplines of competitive clay pigeon shooting, which is shooting shotguns at clay targets. The other disciplines are skeet shooting and sporting clays. They are disting ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

Winter Games

As of 2018, the winter games take place over three months and include events in 21 sports. * Alpine skiing * Archery *

Billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

* Cornhole *

CrossFit CrossFit is a branded fitness regimen that involves constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. The method was developed by Greg Glassman, who founded CrossFit with Lauren Jenai in 2000, with CrossFit its registered trad ...

Curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

* Disc golf * eSports * Fat-tire bike racing *

Figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are m ...

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

* Martial arts * Nordic skiing * Pickleball *

Pistol shooting Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms ( firearms and airguns, in forms suc ...

Ski jumping Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the fina ...

Snowmobiling A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...

Snowshoe running Snowshoe running, or snowshoeing, is a winter sport practiced with snowshoes, which is governed by World Snowshoe Federation (WSSF) founded in 2010, which until 2015 had its name International Snowshoe Federation (ISSF). The snowshoes running ...

Table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Editions

Notes

External links

* {{Multi-sport events 1985 establishments in Wisconsin Multi-sport events in the United States Recurring sporting events established in 1985 Sports in Wisconsin