World Games

The World Games are an international multi sport event held every four years for sports that are non Olympic. The first games were held in 1981 in Santa Clara, California and now 28 years on the 2009 World Games host city is Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Although I'm not sure of the exact number this year, typically between 25 to 35 different sports take part in the World Games. Inline speed skating is one of these sports and racing starts in a few days on the 17th and runs till the 19th.

The World Games are run by the International World Games Association under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee. In the past some of the sports that were in the World Games eventually made it as Olympic sports. So it's important for skating to showcase our sport to it's full potential for any hope of that Olympic dream.

The track in Kaohsiung is a 200 meter coated/painted flat banking track. The track is an odd shape with not the best surface and probably not the best track to showcase our sport on, but we have to make the best out of what we have. Hopefully the rain holds off and the IOC are able to see some exciting, fast and clean competition.

Skaters had to qualify for this years World Games at last years World Championships. The top 30 male and top 30 female skaters from the track overall get a place on the starting list. However once the skater has qualified the federation from that country can then switch that skaters place with a fellow country man/women. So this means each country is not limited to two skaters per event like the World Championships. This year in the womens competition Colombia can start 5 women per event, Korea 4, Chinese Taipei 3, Germany 3, Italy 3 etc. While other countries like Australia, Spain, Switzerland and France are in my situation and are alone.

A positive for skating is that nearly every sign I have seen around the city promoting the World Games has a skater on it. There are posters, flags, billboards and flyer's everywhere around Kaohsiung and I have seen quiet a few ads on the television. Here are a few pictures I took while I was out getting lunch, I would have only covered about 1km.

Bus Stop


These flags are everywhere


Another big poster


Big Billboard