The 2017 World Games (), also known as Wrocław 2017, was the tenth edition of the

World Games The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 d ...

, held from 20 to 30 July 2017 in

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The World Games were organized by the Wrocław Organizing Committee. Wrocław was selected as the host city in January 2012 in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

, over Budapest, Hungary. It was the first time The World Games was organised in Poland. Wrocław was the sixth city in Europe after

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

(

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

(

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

(

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...

(

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

) and

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

(

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

) to host The World Games. A total of 201 events in 27 official sport disciplines were held during the Games. This is the first time that

floorball Floorball (also known by other names) is a sport played with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. It is played indoors with sticks and a hollow plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three periods. The sport of bandy also playe ...

women's lacrosse Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a field sport played at the international level with two opposing teams of ten players each (12 players per team at the U.S. domestic level). Originally played by indigenous ...

, and

Muay Thai Muay Thai or Muaythai (, , ), sometimes referred to as Thai boxing, the Art of Eight Limbs or the Science of Eight Limbs, is a Thai martial art and full-contact combat sport that uses stand-up striking, sweeps, and various clinch fighting, cl ...

have been included in The World Games as official sports. Also, a total of 21 events in 4 invitational sports,

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

indoor rowing Indoor(s) may refer to: *the interior of a building *Indoor environment, in building science, traditionally includes the study of indoor thermal environment, indoor acoustic environment, indoor light environment, and indoor air quality *Built envi ...

kickboxing Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid Martial arts, martial art and Boxing (disambiguation), boxing type based on punch (combat), punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, norma ...

, and

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

were held during the Games.

Host selection

Four cities expressed interest in hosting the 2017 Games. After examination of the files, the application of

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

was not brought to the next step. The candidate cities were announced by the IWGA in August 2011: *

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Just a few days before the awarding ceremony,

withdrew its bid for financial reasons. The final decision was announced by Ron Froehlich, President of the International World Games Association, on 12 January 2012 in

. The 10th edition of The World Games was awarded to

Venues

West Cluster

The West Cluster was the main clusters of the games, include the opening ceremony venue, Stadion Miejski, the venue of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine. * Stadion Miejski – opening ceremony, 42,771 spectators *Millennium Park – roller speed skating * Orbita Hall – kickboxing, muay thai, 3,000 spectators * Orbita Swimming Pool – canoe polo, finswimming, lifesaving * Stara Odra River – waterskiing, wakeboarding

Central Cluster

* National Forum of Music – closing ceremony, powerlifting, 1,800 spectators *Nowy Targ Square – orienteering, sport climbing *Sky Tower Housed – bowling *Hasta la Vista Sport Club – Squash

East Cluster

Centennial Hall Centennial Hall (, ) may refer to: in Canada * Centennial Hall (London, Ontario), London, Ontario, Canada * Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada * Saskatoon Centennial Auditorium, former name of TCU Place in Germany * , 1902 * Ce ...

– acrobatic gymnastic, aerobic gymnastics, dancesport, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline gymnastics, Tumbling, 10,000 spectators * Wroclaw Congress Center – billiards * Pergola Centennial Hall – archery, boules sports, orienteering, 10,000 spectators *

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

– American football, motorcycle speedway, 35,000 spectators *University of Physical Education – tug of war *Marsowe Fields – tug of war *P5 Complex – beach handball, flying disc *WKK Sport Center – floorball, korfball *Sport Complex GEM – ju-jitsu, karate *Olawka Stadium – fistball, lacrosse

Outside Wrocław

*Szymanów Airport, Szymanów – air sports *Trzebnica Beech Forest,

Trzebnica Trzebnica (Polish pronunciation: ; , ) is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in west-central Poland. It is the seat of Trzebnica County, and of the smaller administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Trzebnica. It lies within the eastern Trzebni ...

– orienteering *Świdnica Icerink,

Świdnica Świdnica (; ; ) is a city on the Bystrzyca (Oder), Bystrzyca River in south-western Poland in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. As of 2021, it has a population of 55,413 inhabitants. It is the seat of Świdnica County, and also of the smaller dis ...

– artistic roller skating, inline hockey *Laskowice Sport Complex, Jelcz-Laskowice – indoor rowing

The events

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place in the Stadion Miejski on 20 July 2017. Artistic conception of the opening Ceremony was implemented by Polish director and TV producer, Krzysztof Materna, who was responsible for the direction of the show, scenario details, artistry, choreography, composition, sound system specialties and all special effects of the ceremony. The ceremony highlighted aspects of Polish culture and featured the popular singer, Dawid Kwiatkowski, and Radzimir Dębski,

Kamil Bednarek Kamil Bednarek (born 10 May 1991 in Brzeg) is a Polish reggae and dancehall vocalist, songwriter, composer and musician. He is best known as the runner-up in the third series of Mam talent!. From 2008 to 2012, Bednarek was the lead singer of ...

, and Steve Nash alongside the Turntable Orchestra. The Games were officially opened by President of

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

Thomas Bach Thomas Bach (born 29 December 1953) is a German lawyer, former foil fencer, and Olympic gold medalist. He has served as the ninth president of the International Olympic Committee since 2013, the first ever Olympic champion to be elected to tha ...

Sports

The 2017 World Games programme featured 27 official sports, and 4 invitational sports encompassing 219 events. This was the first time that

, and

were included in the World Games as official sports, and the first time

and

were included as invitational sports. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sports discipline. *^AD *^AD *^T *^I *^P *^AD *^B *^P *^P *^B *^P *^AD *^T *^B *^B *^T *^I *^T *^M *^M *^I *^B *^B *^T *^M *^T *^S *^AD *^T *^I *^T *^B *^M *^T *^AD *^S *^T ;Notes :AD: Artistic and Dance sports :B: Ball sports :I: Invitational sports, selected by the host city :M: Martial arts :P: Precision sports :S: Strength sports :T: Trend sports

Participating nations

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was held on 30 July 2017 at Wolności Square near the National Forum of Music in Wrocław.

Calendar

Medal table

Medal design

Wrocław's medal design was unveiled in July 2017. The official sports medals were a diameter of eight centimetres, larger than the invitation sports medals which were a diameter of six centimetres. The face of the medals features The World Games logo, while the reverse displays original work by Professor Mateusz Dworski. In the centre of the medal is a globe containing the image of the Wrocław City Hall building. The medals were designed by Dworski, a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, and were produced by the Polish National Mint. This is the table of the medal count of the 2017 World Games, based on the medal count of the International World Games Committee (IWGA). These rankings sort by the number of gold medals, earned by a National Olympic Committee (NOC). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by IWGA Country Code. Although this information is provided by the IWGA, the IWGA itself does not recognize or endorse any ranking system.

Official sports

The final medal table:

Invitation sports

Broadcasting

Olympic Channel * –

Sport1 Sport1 is a German free-to-air television channel centred towards sports programming, as well as teleshopping. It was launched on 1 January 1993 as DSF (''Deutsches Sportfernsehen''), replacing the television channel Tele 5 which had become th ...

* – Sportitalia * –

Polsat Polsat is a Polish free-to-air television channel that was launched on 5 December 1992 by Zygmunt Solorz-Żak. , it is the most watched television channel in Poland with a market share of 11.30% Polsat belongs to Grupa Polsat Plus ( WSE: CP ...

* –

Match TV Match! TV () is a Russian free-to-air federal sports television channel owned by Gazprom Media. The channel began broadcasting on November 1, 2015, and had been created in accordance with the order of Russian president Vladimir Putin, with the a ...

* – UA:First

Marketing

Mascots

The official mascots of the 2017 World Games are a boy and a girl named 'Hansel and Gretel', named after the popular fairy tale and townhouses in Wroclaw. The duo were selected from a nationwide voting in February 2015, and were chosen in November 2015. They symbolise Wroclaw as a place of positive meetings.

References

External links

The World Games 2017 Wrocław

Results Book
{{EventsAt2017WorldGames

Sports competitions in Wrocław 21st century in Wrocław International sports competitions hosted by Poland

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Multi-sport events in Poland July 2017 sports events in Europe

Host selection

Venues

West Cluster

Central Cluster

East Cluster

Outside Wrocław

The events

Opening ceremony

Sports

Participating nations

Closing ceremony

Calendar

Medal table

Medal design

Official sports

Invitation sports

Broadcasting

Marketing

Mascots

Sponsors

References

External links