Volunteering for the World Games

My Non-Horse Life, It Does Exist

Awareness of the outside world. “Politics stops at the water’s edge.” Vandenberg misquoting T. Roosevelt. Lovely sentiment, yes? However, brief surfing shows that the quote gets weaponzied. Plus, the people who are objecting to the sentiment now are the ones who quoted it the last time around. Politics is exhausting.
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I have sent in an application to volunteer for the World Games taking place in Birmingham, Alabama, later this year. The World Games 2022 | Birmingham, USA

“The World Games is a showcase for athletes who compete in eclectic array of sports that have one thing in common: They are not part of the regular Olympic program.” ESPN: World Games, featuring non-Olympic events, pushed back to 2022, AP, Apr 2, 2020.

So many sports which I never knew existed. Good for them. Anything done well is difficult to do. Twelve sports are listed on the World Skate website. Who knew? Well, lots of people, clearly. I had no idea. World Skate: Artistic (rollerskates).

I mention this here because most (all?) of my big volunteering has been horse-related: WEG, Olympics, Rolex.

That’s not going to help me for this. Of course I want to be on the field of play. That’s where the excitement is. Unfortunately I know squat about the rules of canoe polo or korfball.

I’ll probably be selling shirts, or taking tickets, or doing crowd control at some place miles away from the activity.

Yes, I did say I was tired of living other people’s lives. [The End of the Road, In Which I Consider the Price Of Living Vicariously]

Still am. I stand by that sentiment. OTOH, this is local. The commitment is hours rather than days or weeks. I can come home and get on with my life.

Have not heard back. Will keep you posted. Later. interview request has appeared in my inbox.

Links

“Check out all sports that will be at The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama!” IWGA. Artistic and Dance (3), Ball (12), Martial Arts (8), Precision (5), Strength (3), Trend (10).

Each sport has further subdivsions. For example, the first in the list, Artistic and Dance Sports:

Dancesport -> Breaking, Latin, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Standard. IWGA: Dancesport

Gymnastics -> Acrobatics, Aerobics, Parkour, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Tumbling. IWGA: Gynmastics

Roller Sports -> Artistic, Inline Hockey, Speed Skating Road, Speed Skating Track IWGA: Roller Sports

And so on down the list.

The best way I’ve found to see a list of all the individual sports is the ticket purchase schedule, WGBHam: Tickets. Also Wiki: 2022 World Games, Calendar.

So who is playing? WGBHam: Qualifications by Sport.

AL.com: World Games medals revealed, featuring Vulcan, Sloss Furnace, Garrison, Feb. 23, 2022.

“Birmingham is following the basic principle of the IWGA that no new sports facilities need to be built to host the Games.” IWGA: Back In The USA.

AL.com: Answer clear for Birmingham’s World Games, Russia must be banned, Goodman, Feb. 26, 2022.

Onwards!
Katherine