The International World Games Association (IWGA) has earlier announced the 35 sports in the 12th edition of the multi-sport event in Chengdu, People's Republic of China, to be held from 7th to 17th August 2025. Now, in consultation with the participating international sports federations and the host city, the IWGA has agreed on most of the 60+ disciplines that are to be competed in during the ten days of competition.
Compared to the Games in Birmingham, USA in 2022, 4 new sports and several new disciplines will be introduced at The World Games 2025 in Chengdu. Medals were awarded in 58 disciplines at the previous edition of The World Games.
Cheerleading, Para Dance and Powerboating will be represented at The World Games for the first time. Sambo celebrates its comeback after the editions in London, GBR in 1985 and in The Hague, Netherlands in 1993. Disc Golf was played at The World Games 2001.
The following new disciplines will compete for gold at The World Games:
Dragon Boat (Canoe, was invitational in 2005 and 2009)
Pom (Cheerleading)
Point Fighting (Kickboxing)
Beach Korfball
Para Dance
MotoSurf (Powerboating)
Powerlifting Classic
Freestyle-Inline (Roller Sports)
Freediving (Underwater Sports)
Sanda (Wushu, was invitational in 2009 and 2013)
There will be competitions held in Ju-jitsu and Freediving for athletes with an impairment. All disciplines in the 2025 Games that have already been determined can be found here.
Sebastian Garvens, IWGA Sports Director, says of the line-up of competitions: "The programme is again evolving. We are including new, booming and highly popular disciplines such as Disc Golf suggested by our federations. It is as important for us also to take into account the wishes of the host city; for example, Dragon Boat is one of the most famous Chinese sports. Following our Strategy Paper, it was also important for us to allow more sports for athletes with impairments to feature on the programme. In 2022, we only had one Wheelchair Rugby event. In 2025, we’ll include four sports for athletes with an impairment."
There is still a need for coordination in four of the total of 35 sports. Final discussions on the disciplines are pending for Air Sports, Gymnastics, Para Dance and Waterski/Wakeboard.
Sebastian Garvens: “We are in close consultation with Chengdu to select the best sports venues according to our concept, sharing venues between sports and building sport units where possible. This decision, taken in consultation with the sports, is critical to define the competition schedule with the exact medal events which will be announced later this year, after the 1st Competition Managers’ Meeting.”
In the meantime, qualifications for TWG 2025 have already begun. The criteria for these will be set by the international federations by the end of October. A total of 5,000 participants from around 100 nations will take part in the Games.
The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the International World Games Association, organised with the support of the International Olympic Committee. The World Games 2022 was held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 7-17 July 2022. 3,600 athletes from 34 sports and 100 countries took part in the Games. The 12th edition of The World Games will be held in Chengdu, CHN, 7-17 August 2025.
