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Alabama’s celebration of non-Olympic sports

Photo: Eddy Palen/LETA

Gints Narogs, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”

The 11th World Games will be opened today in Birmingham, Alabama (USA), where athletes from 108 countries will participate, including athletes from Latvia. The World Games are a massive event, with around 3,600 athletes competing in 30 sports in 54 disciplines. A total of 223 sets of medals will be distributed. The first such event was held in 1981 in the USA, which is hosting this sports forum for the second time.

The previous World Games were held five years ago relatively close to us – in Wroclaw (Poland). Like the Olympics, the World Games are held every four years, but this one was moved forward a year because last summer’s focus was on the Tokyo Olympics. The World Games, despite their scope, lose significantly to the Olympic family in terms of prestige and publicity.

It’s a big event for athletes anyway, because for some it’s the biggest event of their career. The men’s floorball and inline hockey teams from Latvia, karate player Kalvis Kalniņš, orienteer Sandra Grosberga, wakeboarder Roberts Liņavskis and representatives of drone sports – Oskars Raudiņš, Tomas Pētersons and Karīna Limora.

Kalvi Kalniņš also has Olympic experience, gained last year in Japan, where he won seventh place, but karate was included in the program of the Tokyo Games as the home team’s choice, and after two years in Paris, Olympic medals will no longer be awarded in this sport. Eight national teams will participate in floorball and inline hockey.

In the group stage, the floorball players will meet Sweden, Finland and Thailand, the “inline” hockey team will have to compete with the Czech Republic, Italy and Switzerland. It should be noted that part of the revenue from the sold tickets will be directed to the restoration of the sports infrastructure of Ukraine, while Russian and Belarusian athletes may not participate in the World Games.

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