Everyone knows the Olympic Games, but have you heard of The World Games? The World Games is also a once-every-four-years multi-sport spectacle that brings together athletes from around the world to compete at the highest level. The 2025 edition in Chengdu, China closed on Sunday, but you can relive the excitement of week 1 on our podcast!
What are The World Games?
The World Games started in 1981 as a showcase for sports and events that are not on the Olympic program. Fans get 11 days of the best these athletes have to offer with all the drama and high stakes competition. They’re held a year after the Summer Olympics, so if you’re missing the Summer Games, these can help full that hole.
The World Games are also recognized by the International Olympic Committee, which means support. The IOC also gets the benefit of seeing how potential Olympic sports play out in a multi-sport setting.
A lot of The World Games hosts are smaller cities that wouldn’t normally be able to host a full-scale Olympics. Although this year’s World Games are in Chengdu, China, a city of nearly 21 million people, other hosts have included Birmingham, Alabama (population ~196,000) and Wrocław, Poland (population ~674,000).
Smaller cities are able to host this event because they don’t have to build any new sports venues. The sports program flexes to accommodate the facilities that the host city already has. This allows smaller cities the opportunity to host an international event and realize the economic benefit it can bring.
If Olympic sports aren’t on the program, what is?
While most of the sports featured in The World Games aren’t on the Olympic program, some have been (e.g. – tug of war, karate). This event can also be a training ground for future Olympic sports–flag football, squash, and lacrosse will all be part of LA 2028.
The World Games 2025 Chengdu featured over 4,000 athletes competing in 60 disciplines across 34 sports.
Gymnastics included acrobatics (human towers!), aerobics (this ain’t The Crystal Light Championships from the 1980s), tumbling (how do they not get dizzy?), double mini-trampoline (fly high little gymnast!), and synchronized trampoline (all the twists and turns of trampoline – in stereo!). Trust me, you need to see the triple-twisting triple somersault to believe it. If you aren’t impressed enough, announcer Blythe Lawrence will make sure you know how hard that is.
Think the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry runs deep? Make it Nordic and you get the gold-medal matches in men’s and women’s floorball between Sweden and Finland. Add in that our friend Olly Hogben was on the call for both games and it is must-see TV.
Flag football will make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028 but you can get a preview of the hot US-Mexico rivalry at The World Games.
And I haven’t even mentioned the sports I never knew I needed in my life like boules, korfball, beach handball, ultimate disc, and lifesaving.
But does it provide economic benefit to cities?
If you’ve been watching the Chengdu 2025 streams, you’ll notice that in many sports, the stands are pretty empty. It was a similar situation for Birmingham 2022. So, how successful is an edition of The World Games?
Birmingham originally estimated that The World Games would infuse about $256 million into Alabama in terms of economic impact. In the final report, total economic impact came to $165 million, with $11.7 million of direct economic impact. This was lower than expected, in part, due to international travel restrictions that were still in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant fewer international travels went to Birmingham.
Ticket sales were also not great. Sponsors bought 6 of every 10 tickets sold. The general public bought just over 3 of every 10 tickets sold. The rest were freebies.
While over 13,500 people visited Birmingham during The World Games, the organizing committee managed to end up $15 million in the red, in part due to $2.5 million in lost sponsorships and poor ticket sales. The city agreed to chip in $5 million to help settle debts.
Although the pandemic and the war in Ukraine didn’t help, perhaps Birmingham was too small of a city to host this type of event. With similarly empty stands, it will be interesting to see what Chengdu reports about its edition.
I’m already missing Chengu 2025. Where are the next World Games?
The World Games will be heading back to Germany in 2029. Karlsruhe (population ~310,000) will have the honor of being the first two-time host of this event, having hosted the third edition of the World Games in 1989. This will also be the third time The World Games will go to Germany. The last German city to host was Duisburg in 2005.
–Alison Brown, with Jill Jaracz