The southern hospitality was all over the place. Birmingham, Alabama hosted the World Games with charm, kindness and professionalism. Athletes in 34 sports were competing at existing venues all over and just outside the city.
Sports at the World Games are not olympic. Sports like lacrosse, wushu, drone racing, canopy piloting, fistball and many others were shown to the people of Birmingham.
Discover the Games was in Alabama too. To... discover. And tell the stories behind those sports and their athletes.
The scenery: The Great Market Hall, on the borders of the Duna in the south-center of Hungary's capital Budapest. The huge industrial building, the Nagyvasartelep, dates to 1932. In 2019 the area around that same building is where the competitions of the World Urban Games are being held. Athletes from all over the world show their exceptional skills. The sports? Think of freestyle BMX, 3x3 basketball, breakdancing and parkour. Some of them will be Olympic sports in the near future. In 2019 they were grouped together at the first World Urban Games ever.
Montenegro as the heart of Europe. That's how the small country at the coast of the Adriatic Sea represents itself. For five days in May 2019 Montenegro is definitely the center of the sportsminded parts of the small states of Europe. The 18th edition of the Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) is held in several cities of Montenegro, the youngest member of the club (the country joined in 2009). They compete with Monaco, Andorra, Cyprus, Malta, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Iceland and San Marino. They're too small to gain medals at the Olympic Games, so why not organize their own?
The opening ceremony near the famous obelisk at the Avenida 9 de Julio was the memorable beginning of the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. Young athletes with talent show their skills in competition. Of course winning is important, but because of the young age of the participants the Olympic spirit and the experience is as important as the result. Over 200 countries sent their talents to Argentina. With four sporting zones and other stand alone venues the Youth Olympic Games were all over Buenos Aires. Including 'new' urban sports as climbing, 3x3 basketball and breakdancing.
The Dutch province of Friesland is known for their local sports and their communities ('mienskip' in Frisian). Kaatsen, fierljeppen and skutjesilen are some examples of those traditional sports. That's why it's not a big surprise the European Sports for All Games are being held in the North of the Netherlands. The event is all about the local and traditional sports of the European countries, like the Frisian sports.
Ever heard of Pandolo, a Slovenian baseball-like game? Some players demonstrated it in the town of Witmarsum. There were some inhabitants from French-Polynesia to demonstrate Polynesian canoeing on the Sneekermeer. Some other examples: you could try the Belgian game Staande Wip, some Irish folks were there to talk about their Gaelic football and the French showed what you can do with an empty barrel of wine (you can roll it, very fast): Barrel rolling!
Discover the Games wrote a few stories for the event and reports about kaatsen (known in some other countries as 'pelota' or 'wallball') for Dutch national radio: NOS. Click HERE to the discover the traditional sports of Europe:
Isn't karate an Olympic sport? Or squash? Nope. These are pretty big sports, but they are not on the Olympic agenda. All those sports are grouped together at The World Games. In 2017 Discover the Games was in the city of Wroclaw, Poland, to know a bit more of those sports and the event. It's a showcase for some of the sports, to present themselves as Olympic material. Some other sports don't necessary have that Olympic dream, but how cool is it to watch lacrosse or water skiing or bowling at such a high level of event? That's exactly what we did. Watch and tell stories. By clicking HERE you read all bout it.