Last week, the member federations of the IWGA took a unanimous joint decision to support the postponing of The World Games to 7–17 July 2022. Several of the federations have expressed explicit support for this.
World Lacrosse President Sue Redfern: "World Lacrosse would like to express its appreciation to the International World Games Association (IWGA) and the Birmingham Organizing Committee for their continued commitment to supporting international competition and athletes from around the world. The announcement today that the next edition of The World Games is being rescheduled for July 2022, still to be held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, is great news for athletes and the international federations they represent.
The fact the IWGA and Birmingham Organizing Committee have so quickly adjusted their planning following the recent decision by the International Olympic Committee to stage the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 is a testament to their shared commitment to sport and to the athletes of the world. For our part, World Lacrosse is honoured to be participating in The World Games in 2022 and looks forward to showcasing our new, 6 v 6 disciplines in Birmingham in July 2022."
International Life Saving Federation: “The ILS is pleased to support this change of date to 2022 and thanks the IWGA and BOC for their prompt action to resolve this issue. The ILS Sport Commission will now consider the implications of this relating to the qualification process that will need to be adopted, once the rescheduling of the Lifesaving World Championships 2020 has been confirmed.”
The International Gymnastics Federation: “FIG fully supports this decision, especially since The World Games is the most significant multi-sport event for the athletes of the Gymnastics disciplines which are not part of the Olympic programme.
This one-year postponement will give the FIG the time necessary to find new solutions for the holding of the qualifying events for The World Games in those disciplines, since the 2020 World Championships have also had to be postponed.”
Secretary General of the International Floorball Federation, John Liljelund: “The IFF is fully supporting the move of The World Games 2021 in Birmingham, USA to be held from the 7th to 17th of July, 2022, as there would not for a number of reasons have been possibilities for a successful execution of the event in July 2021. We look forward to continue the good preparation process together with the Birmingham Organising Committee and the IWGA and believe that we will have an excellent event in Birmingham in July 2022.”
International Handball Federation: “The IHF fully supports the decision of The International World Games Association and Birmingham Organising Committee to postpone The World Games in Birmingham to 2022.”
President of the International Federation of Sport Climbing, Marco Scolaris said: “We are very pleased to move together with the International World Games Association to postpone the World Games in Birmingham to July 2022. Climbers love The World Games: the first large multisport event which welcomed our sport already in 2005. We need also to express our gratitude to the Birmingham leaders and its Organizing Committee for their promptness in finding a solution following the Olympic Games postponement.”
President of the International Korfball Federation, Jan Fransoo: “The IKF understands and fully supports the decision made by the IWGA and BOC to postpone the World Games until 2022, and has full confidence that the 2022 Games will be a great celebration of sports. With the Olympic Games being moved to 2021, this was the most viable option to do justice to the Games in Birmingham. The IKF would like to express its gratitude to everyone involved within the IWGA and BOC for their quick action after the announcement by the IOC. Having the new dates for the event available creates clarity and enables us to look at the consequences of this decision for the international Korfball competition calendar.
World Baseball Softball Confederation: "The discussions with IWGA were very candid and as the governing body for international softball, the WBSC is very supportive of the change of dates," WBSC Executive Director Michael Schmidt said. "This decision now brings further clarity to the 2021 and 2022 international and WBSC sports calendars and our female softball stars can now plan accordingly. We look forward to continuing to work closely with IWGA and the Birmingham Organising Committee to make the event a superb success in 2022."
International Fistball Association: “IFA joined the videoconference to take the final decision of the postponement to 2022 and fully supports the decision.”
World Archery Secretary General Tom Dielen: “Moving the Olympic Games has widespread implications for sport and particularly next year’s calendar. We fully support the decision to delay the World Games and look forward to a fantastic event in 2022.”
International Powerlifting Federation, President Gaston Parage: “IWGA in consultation with the Birmingham Organising Committee (BOC) and all participating Sports (also IPF) made the unanimous decision to postpone the World Games to 2022.
The new date will be 07-17 July 2022 in Birmingham,Alabama. The IPF fully support this decision of the IWGA. “
World Squash Federation President Jacques Fontaine: "I would like to put on record our delight that the International World Games Association (IWGA) and Birmingham Organising Committee (BOC) have been able to reschedule the 11th edition of The World Games to the year after next, from 7th to 17th July.
The 2020 world sporting calendar has been devastated by the advent of COVID-19 and the rescheduling of the Olympic Games to next year would have meant direct clash with the original World Games dates. We therefore applaud the IWGA and BOC for quickly finding new dates to keep this great event on the calendar.
The World Games has become an important date on the international squash calendar since we made our debut in the event in Lahti, Finland, 23 years ago.
The event has always attracted the world’s best players – with world number ones Peter Nicol, Nick Matthew and Gregory Gaultier successive men’s gold medallists between 2005 and 2013, and Malaysia’s formidable Nicol David, the world No.1 from 2006 to 2015, winner of the women’s gold medal three times in a row from 2005!
Our players will now be refocussing their attention on peaking for July 2022, aiming for World Games gold in the US state of Alabama."
World Flying Disc Federation: "WFDF is very supportive of the decision to reschedule The World Games, a decision that was unanimously approved by the member federations with sports on TWG Programme,” commented WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch, who represented WFDF during this decision-making videoconference. “We are very grateful to the the Birmingham Organizing Committee (BOC), the IWGA Executive Committee and their staff, and all partners of IWGA including the Sports Broadcaster ISB and SwissTiming, to allow for such a speedy decision to be taken. This will now enable WFDF and its member associations to analyze and determine further adjustments to our plans for the 2021 and 2022 event calendars.”
Added Volker Bernardi, WFDF Executive Director and member of the IWGA Executive Committee: “We have to thank the BOC under the leadership of CEO Nick Sellers and the IWGA Executive Committee supported by the IWGA staff for dealing with the current crisis and making such a speedy decision. This announcment ends all uncertainty and speculation and gives great credibility to IWGA as an organisation and The World Games as a Multisport Games event. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my colleagues within the IWGA Executive Committee and particularly the IWGA staff for their great support and hard work during this process, and the BOC for being incredibly supportive in making a decision which I fully believe benefits all stakeholders.”
World Underwater Federation: “CMAS totally support this decision because The World Games is the most important multi-sport event for our World Underwater Federation and athletes in the Finswimming discipline.
The postponement will give the CMAS federations and our athletes more time and the best possible conditions to prepare for, get selected and participate in The World Games.”
The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the International World Games Association under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee. The 11th edition of The World Games will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 15-25 July 2021. 3,600 athletes from over 30 sports and 100 countries will take part in the Games.