2009 World Games

The 2009 World Games (Chinese: 2009年世界運動會; pinyin: 2009 Nián shìjiè yùndònghuì) the eighth edition of the World Games, were an international multi-sport event held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (under the name Chinese Taipei) from 16 July 2009 to 26 July 2009. The games featured sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games.

World Games VIII
第八屆世界運動會
Dì bā jiè shìjiè yùndònghuì
Motto Top Sports – High Spirits
Host cityKaohsiung, Taiwan
under the IWGA Designation: Chinese Taipei
MottoTop Sports – High Spirits
Nations101
Athletes4,800 approx.
Events165 (35 sports)
Opening16 July 2009
Closing26 July 2009
Opened byPresident Ma Ying-jeou
Main venueKaohsiung National Stadium

Nearly 6,000 athletes, officials, coaches, referees and others from 101 countries participated in the 2009 Kaohsiung World Games, setting a record high for the multi-sport competition. The International World Games Association (IWGA) President Ron Froehlich praised the July 16–26 games as the "best games ever."[1]

Emblem

The design of the emblem for The World Games 2009 is based on the first Chinese character in the city's name. The character " kao" (高) means high or superior in English. The toponym stylized as a multicolored ribbon aims to create an atmosphere of festivity and celebration. The warm colors, orange and magenta, at the top and green and blue at the bottom symbolize the sun rising over the ocean and mirror Kaohsiung well: a passionate city with plenty of sunshine – a vibrant metropolis by the sea.

Mascots

Gao Mei (高妹) and Syong Ge (雄哥) are named after the host city, Kaohsiung (according to Tongyong Pinyin). They are intended to personify it as "a city of the sea and the sun", to emphasize "ecology and environmental protection", and to symbolize the "friendliness and hospitality" of the city's residents.[2]

Opening ceremony

World Games 2009 opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony, on July 16, was held in the Main Stadium, and involved 4,000 performers. It was designed to provide "a platform for the world to understand Taiwan better", and focused on music, dancing and depictions of Taiwanese culture, including its aboriginal culture. The ceremony was watched by an estimated 100 million people worldwide.[3]

Among the foreign dignitaries in attendance was the President of Nauru, Marcus Stephen, one of Taiwan's diplomatic allies and himself a former athlete, having won seven gold medals in weightlifting at the Commonwealth Games.[4]

Although China had sent athletes to compete, they were absent from the opening ceremony, reportedly due to Ma Ying-jeou inaugurating the Games in his capacity as the head of state.[5]

News Conference

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu said the city has shown "soft" power in staging The World Games that concluded and praised Kaohsiung residents for their passion in participating in the event. The mayor spoke at a news conference held after the closing ceremony during which International World Games Association (IWGA) President Ron Froehlich praised the July 16–26 games as the "best games ever."[1]

Chen noted that after the city was awarded the right to host the Games in 2005, it was determined to make it a success, and she said the city showed "confidence and competence" in staging the first international sports event held in Taiwan after "numerous daunting coordination challenges." She also praised the maturity of Kaohsiung residents, saying that their enthusiastic participation and passionate cheering for athletes from every country was "touching." Revenues from ticket sales at The World Games have been initially estimated at NT$65 million. Chen noted Froehlich's praise of Kaohsiung, which she said has displayed friendship, cooperation and community participation, and offered her best wishes to Cali, Colombia, which will host the next World Games in 2013.

She said Kaohsiung is an open, rich and pluralistic city that respects human rights and tolerates different views and political stances as long as they are expressed in a peaceful manners. Concerning the absence of the athletes from China, which was reported to be a boycott, from the opening and closing ceremonies of The World Games, she said that as a big country, she expected it to show more grace and tolerance.

Participants

Sports

Official sports

The 2009 World Games programme featured 31 official sports, and 5 invitational sports. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events, which were contested in each sports discipline.

Invitational sports

Doping

On 16 September 2009, the IWGA announced that there had been several doping violations at the recently completed 2009 Games. On 26 October 2009, the IWGA Anti-Doping Panel decided on punitive measures against five medal-winners (four bodybuilders and a sumo athlete). The measures included the stripping of three gold and two silver medals, as well as lifetime bans from The World Games for three bodybuilders.[6] The IWGA has made no announcement of reallocation of the forfeited bodybuilding medals. The International Sumo Federation reallocated the medals for the affected sumo event.[7] In 2010, all medals in the sport of bodybuilding were removed from the medal table at the host organizer's website (worldgames2009.tw, "The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung"), which is now archived.[8][9] However, all medals as first bestowed still appear at The World Games website (theworldgames.org) in both look-up and full result reports.[10][11] The sport of bodybuilding has not appeared at a subsequent edition of The World Games.

Medal table

Official sports

The medal tally during the eighth World Games is as follows. Russia finished at the top of the final medal table.[6][7][12] Excluded are four bodybuilding medals forfeited for doping and not reallocated. In two events there were two bronze medals awarded because of ties for third-place: women's 100m finswimming and women's life saving combined relay.

  *   Host nation (Chinese Taipei)

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Russia (RUS)19131547
2 Italy (ITA)16121341
3 China (CHN)1410529
4 United States (USA)138526
5 France (FRA)11141338
6 Ukraine (UKR)[lower-alpha 1]9121031
7 Chinese Taipei (TPE)*89724
8 Germany (GER)661022
9 South Korea (KOR)63514
10 Australia (AUS)510520
11 Great Britain (GBR)46919
12 Japan (JPN)45615
13 Colombia (COL)45312
14 Netherlands (NED)45211
15  Switzerland (SUI)3407
16 Brazil (BRA)[lower-alpha 1]3238
17 New Zealand (NZL)24511
18 Belgium (BEL)2417
19 Slovakia (SVK)2338
20 Finland (FIN)2316
21 Spain (ESP)2305
22 Slovenia (SLO)2204
23 Austria (AUT)2125
24 Croatia (CRO)2035
25 Mongolia (MGL)1304
26 Canada (CAN)1124
 Poland (POL)1124
28 Greece (GRE)1113
29 Romania (ROU)1102
30 Malaysia (MAS)1034
31 Thailand (THA)1023
 Venezuela (VEN)1023
33 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH)1012
 Chile (CHI)1012
 Hungary (HUN)[lower-alpha 2]1012
 Indonesia (INA)1012
 Kazakhstan (KAZ)1012
38 Estonia (EST)1001
 Fiji (FIJ)1001
 Mexico (MEX)1001
 Vietnam (VIE)1001
42 Portugal (POR)0202
43 Egypt (EGY)0145
44 Norway (NOR)0123
 South Africa (RSA)0123
46 Azerbaijan (AZE)0112
 Sweden (SWE)0112
48 Argentina (ARG)0101
 Denmark (DEN)0101
 Dominican Republic (DOM)0101
 Hong Kong (HKG)0101
 Lithuania (LTU)0101
53 Turkey (TUR)0033
54 Montenegro (MNE)0022
55 Belarus (BLR)0011
 Bulgaria (BUL)0011
 Czech Republic (CZE)0011
 Israel (ISR)0011
 Luxembourg (LUX)0011
 Philippines (PHI)0011
 United Arab Emirates (UAE)0011
Totals (61 entries)162163165490
  1. In 2009, Ukraine was stripped of two gold medals in bodybuilding for doping, and Qatar and Brazil were each stripped of a silver medal. This table does not include those stripped medals, and neither does it include possible reallocation of those medals, as the results at the World Games website do not reflect a reallocation.[6]
  2. Hungary was stripped of a gold medal in sumo for doping. This table reflects the reallocation of medals specified by the International Sumo Federation.[6][7]

Invitational sports

  *   Host nation (Chinese Taipei)

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 China (CHN)8008
2 Russia (RUS)6219
3 Chinese Taipei (TPE)*35210
4 Iran (IRI)2114
5 Japan (JPN)1214
6 Brazil (BRA)1012
7 Italy (ITA)1001
8 Hungary (HUN)0314
9 Vietnam (VIE)0224
10 Hong Kong (HKG)0213
11  Switzerland (SUI)0202
12 Croatia (CRO)0112
 Germany (GER)0112
14 Philippines (PHI)0101
15 Canada (CAN)0022
 Malaysia (MAS)0022
 South Korea (KOR)0022
18 Indonesia (INA)0011
 Singapore (SIN)0011
Totals (19 entries)22222064

Calendar

In the following calendar for The World Games 2009, each blue box represents an event competition, such as a qualification round, on that day. The yellow boxes represent days during which medal-awarding finals for a sport were held. Each bullet in these boxes is an event final, the number of bullets per box representing the number of finals that were contested on that day. On the left the calendar lists each sport with events held during the Games, and at the right how many gold medals were won in that sport. There is a key at the top of the calendar to aid the reader.[13]

  As Invitational sport

  Opening ceremony    Event competitions   Event finals   Closing ceremony
July 2009 16
Thu
17
Fri
18
Sat
19
Sun
20
Mon
21
Tue
22
Wed
23
Thu
24
Fri
25
Sat
26
Sun
Gold
medals
Ceremonies
Air sports parachuting         ●●●●● 5
Field archery     ●●●●
●●
6
Beach handball     ●● 2
Billiards         ●●●● 4
Bodybuilding   ●●●●
●●●
7
Boules sports Lyonnaise     ●●●● 4
Boules sports Petangue     ●● 2
Boules sports Raffa     ●● 2
Bowling ten pin   ●● 3
Canoe polo   ●● 2
Dance sport ●● 3
Dragon boat ●● ●● 4
Fin swimming ●●●●
●●●●
10
Fistball       1
Flying disc     1
Acrobatic gymnastics ●● ●● 5
Aerobic gymnastics ●● ●●● 5
Rhythmic gymnastics ●● ●● 4
Trampoline gymnastics ●● ●●● 6
Ju-Jitsu ●●●●
●●●●
10
Karate ●●●●
●●
●●●●
●●●
13
Korfball         1
Life saving ●●●● ●●●● ●●●●
●●
14
Orienteering ●● ●● 5
Powerlifting ●●●●
●●● 8
Racquetball     ●● 2
Roller sports–Artistic   ●●●● 4
Roller sports–Inline Hockey       1
Roller Sports–Speed ●●●● ●●●● ●● 10
Rugby sevens   1
Softball       1
Sport climbing ●● ●● 4
Squash       ●● 2
Sumo ●●●●
●●
●● 8
Tchoukball     ●● 2
Tug of War Indoor 1
Tug of War Outdoor 2
Water skiing     ●● ●●●● 6
Wushu ●● ●●●●
●●●●
●●●
13
July 2009 16
Thu
17
Fri
18
Sat
19
Sun
20
Mon
21
Tue
22
Wed
23
Thu
24
Fri
25
Sat
26
Sun
Gold
medals

Venues

VenueSports
Chengcing LakeArchery, Orienteering
Chung Cheng Martial Arts StadiumBilliards, Racquetball, Squash
Chungcheng StadiumFistball
Cultural Center Jhihde HallBodybuilding, Aerobic gymnastics
Gymnasium of the National Sun Yat-sen UniversityJu-jitsu, Karate
Gymnasium of the Guo-Guang Laboratory School, National Sun Yat-sen UniversityTug of war
Gymnasium of the Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Senior High SchoolSumo
Gymnasium of the National Kaohsiung Normal UniversityKorfball, Tchoukball
Happy Bowling CenterBowling
I-Shou UniversityRoller sports
Ren-ai ParkBoules
Kaohsiung ArenaAcrobatic gymnastics, DanceSport, Rhythmic gymnastics, Trampoline, Tumbling
Kaohsiung Li De Baseball StadiumSoftball
Kaohsiung County StadiumWushu
Kaohsiung Metropolitan ParkParachuting
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine ArtsOrienteering
Kaohsiung Swimming PoolFinswimming, Lifesaving
Lotus LakeCanoe polo, Water skiing, Dragon Boat race
Shou-shan Junior High SchoolClimbing
Sizihwan BayLifesaving, Beach handball
Sun Yat-sen Hall of the National Sun Yat-sen UniversityPowerlifting
World Games StadiumFlying disc, Rugby sevens
Yangming Skating RinkRoller sports

See also

References

  1. "Best Games Ever end on a high note". Taiwan Public Television Service Online. July 26, 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-10-08.
  2. "The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung Mascots". Official website. Archived from the original on 2009-09-25.
  3. "A glittering opening ceremony unfolds in Kaohsiung". Taiwan News. July 17, 2009. Archived from the original on July 18, 2009.
  4. "President declares Kaohsiung World Games open". Taiwan News. July 17, 2009. Archived from the original on July 18, 2009.
  5. "China snubs World Games opening". BBC News. July 16, 2009. Archived from the original on July 19, 2009.
  6. "2009 Kaohsiung: Doping Violations". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  7. "The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung". International Sumo Federation. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  8. "The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung Competition Information". Archived from the original on 2010-01-12. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  9. "The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung Competition Information". Archived from the original on 2010-08-16. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  10. "FULL RESULTS FROM THE OFFICIAL RESULTS PROVIDER Bodybuilding". Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  11. "Results of The World Games (Bodybuilding)". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  12. "Results of the World Games". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  13. "Main Schedule". World Games 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-07-19. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
  • "Official site". Archived from the original on December 15, 2009. Retrieved November 18, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  • "Medal table". Archived from the original on December 18, 2009. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
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