The World Games

They're a pretty big deal around here. Lots of events happening all over town.

If you search "Olympics" on Youtube there is 24 hour video running. Archery currently.

 

Raise your hand if you saw this thread and assumed the world games were happening in Birmingham?

 

If one's sole window into the world was sj.com, one would think the country's events revolved around Birmingham, Alabama.

Or somewhere in Michigan.

 

Not Canada?

 

They don't?!?

 

Which both are 15 minutes to Lake Tahoe.

 

Sure, have fun with it. The World Games are still the next step down from the Olympics, and this is only the second time they have been held in the U.S. They were held in Santa Clara in 1981.

Much like the Olympics, there are a number of sports that no one watches or pays attention to, some quite obscure. (WTF is Korfball?) The other side of the coin is that it's a chance to see the best athletes in their sports live. The venues are spread all over Birmingham, and better than 300,000 tickets have been sold to the various events. There's everything from flag football to skydiving to ballroom dancing, Skating to gymnastics, swimming, multiple martial arts. Billiards. Archery.

Hell, they have canoe polo, which is actually played by two five man teams in kayaks. It is much like water polo, get the ball in the net, but in kayaks instead of swimming. You can throw the ball or flick it with your paddle like a hockey stick. You can capsize guys on the other team. It's funky as hell.

So yes, the World Games are in Birmingham, and there's a lot of cool stuff happening. People are paying attention to sports they would not have lifted a remote to watch last week, and they're having fun doing it.

There's a feed running 24/7, either live while the sessions are or on tape otherwise. Go to Youtube and search World Games. You can't pick out programming, but you can click on the slider bar and jump around to look for something you find interesting.

https://www.al.com/sports/2022/07/cops-chaos-and-an-angry-coach-cause-stir-at-sumo-championship.html

 

I’m just bustin’ your chops, NC…but c’mon, no one cares about the World Games outside of a 30 mile radius of that skate park.

 

I hope that all the World Games action doesn't interrupt the news flow about the ongoing UAB field hockey coaching search or Birmingham city council meetings.

 

Sure... but a whole lot of people have traveled from around the world to get inside that radius. There might even be some sports reporters who are covering it.