Metro Roundup: World Games in Birmingham renamed, delayed until 2022

The Magic City’s debut on the world stage of sports will have to wait due to the global effects of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, including the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo that was announced in March.

The 11th edition of The World Games, previously scheduled to take place in Birmingham in July 2021, has been delayed until July 7-17, 2022. The new dates were announced in April.

Not only that, but the event has a new name. The organizers announced April 22 that the international multi-sport event will become The World Games 2022 Birmingham.

“Ultimately, we wanted to ensure consistency and brand recognition for our event,” said Nick Sellers, CEO of the Birmingham Organizing Committee (BOC). “But more than that, our hope is that The World Games 2022 will stand for something more than a date on the calendar, that it will become a time of reconnection for our community and the world.”

The World Games 2022 Birmingham also unveiled a new logo and website, which has been updated to reflect the rebrand.

In addition, it was announced May 5 that The World Games 2022 Birmingham will be the site of another major international sports championship.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) will recognize The World Games 2022 Birmingham as the top women’s international softball competition for 2022, with the winning team named world champion.

This announcement by the WBSC came after the postponement of the 2021 WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup to 2023.

“With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the postponement of the Olympic Games to 2021 and The World Games to 2022, we wanted to ensure softball athletes had an opportunity for world-class competition in each of the next three years,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari.

The decision to delay the World Games to 2022 was announced April 2 by the BOC and the International World Games Association (IWGA), which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and is recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until July 2021 played a huge factor in the decision to postpone the World Games in Birmingham, organizers said.

Sticking to the original dates would have involved excluding numerous athletes and officials who are also involved in the Olympics and would likely have caused a reduction in interest in the event on the part of the media and public, according to a news release from the IWGA and BOC.

“We share many key partners of the International Olympic Committee, and this move will ensure that we maintain national and international television coverage as well as keeping several sport competitions that participate in the Tokyo Summer Olympics,” Sellers said.

The decision by the IOC to delay the Tokyo Olympics forced the BOC to quickly assess viable alternative dates for the event in Birmingham, including venues and accommodation, organizers said.

In addition, the IWGA had to figure out when services provided to The World Games by such key partners as Swiss Timing and International Sports Broadcasting could be made available.

The new dates in July 2022 were the only 10-day period in which venues, accommodation and partner support could be guaranteed.

IWGA President José Perurena said that he was “impressed by the flexibility and efficiency of the Birmingham Organising Committee” in reacting to the sudden change.

An Olympic-style event, The World Games involves elite athletes from all over the world competing for gold in 32 unique, multi-disciplinary sports.

The sports include kickboxing, men’s and women’s sumo wrestling, parachuting, finswimming and many others.

“There will be a little something for everybody,” Sellers said during his remarks at a Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce luncheon in February.

Featuring 3,600 athletes from more than 100 countries, the event will take place in about 25 venues in the Birmingham metro area.

Event sites include the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, Oak Mountain State Park, the BJCC, Barber Motorsports Park and Sloss Furnaces, Sellers said.

The event will also need approximately 2,000 to 2,500 volunteers.

This event will put Birmingham in a global spotlight for 10 days and make an approximately $256 million impact on the economy, Sellers said at the luncheon. The forecasted attendance is over 500,000 people.

“This is going to be a big deal,” Sellers said. “It gets my blood pumping when I drive under the Red Mountain Expressway and I see that countdown clock.”

The World Games are recognized by the International Olympic Committee, some of the sports were previously in the Olympics or will be in the future, and the athletes who will compete in this event will travel to Birmingham from all over the world, Sellers said.

Birmingham competed for this opportunity against Russia and Peru. The last time the United States hosted the World Games was nearly 40 years ago when Santa Clara, California, hosted the inaugural World Games event in 1981.

“You only get so many opportunities to put yourself and your communities on an international stage,” Sellers said. “It’s a better than average chance that it’s not going to be back at least in my lifetime.”

Organizers and officials in Birmingham said they are still excited about the games coming here.

“The date of the event has changed, but Birmingham’s commitment to a world-class event has not wavered,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin.

The World Games “will be a special time of reconnection as it will be the first major international multi-sport event on American soil following this global pandemic, and we are fully confident that we will rise to the occasion,” Sellers said.

The World Games 2022 Birmingham will be “a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Jonathan Porter, chairman of the BOC Board of Directors. “A new date on the calendar isn’t going to change that.”

For information, call 205-846-2500 or go to the redesigned website at TWG2022.com.