Duathlon, Flag Football, Lacrosse (men), Wheelchair Rugby and Wushu will feature as invitational sports in The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama. They complete the sports programme along with the 30 Official Sports.
This is the first time that a Wheelchair sport will appear in the programme of The World Games. The Wheelchair Rugby played in 2022 will be Low Point, where the gap in function level of the athletes is smaller. “The decision to accept Low Point was facilitated through the strong collaboration of World Rugby, the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation, the Birmingham Organising Committee and local partners such as the Lakeshore Foundation. We’re looking forward to integrating disabled sports of the highest level into our event for the very first time,” IWGA Head of Games Services Sebastian Garvens says.
While Duathlon has been an invitational sport in 2013 and Wushu in 2009 and 2013, men’s Lacrosse is new to The Games. Women’s Lacrosse featured at The World Games 2017 and is in the official programme also in 2022. American Football was invitational in 2005 and 2017, but Flag Football, a dynamic modern non-contact discipline of American football, is new too. Flag Football @TWG2022, presented by the NFL, will feature eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams from around the world.
“We have a great mixture of invitational sports at The World Games 2022”, says IWGA CEO Joachim Gossow. “The host cities of The World Games have the right to propose invitational sports in order to highlight sports of particular importance in the area, and the selection of sports displays this well.”
The Official Sports programme for The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama was published in 2018, and a more detailed version of it earlier this year.
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, 7-17 July 2022. 3,600 athletes from over 30 sports and 100 countries will take part in The World Games.