The World Games are coming to Alabama in 2021, which means we as Alabamians must now learn what in the world some of the games are.
Artistic Roller Skating? Korfball? Orienteering?
Your guess would have been as good as ours until we did some research.
The International World Games’ website says their athletes “compete in sports of a kaleidoscopic variety that is without match in the entire Olympic Movement.” They break the 30+ sports down into six groups: artistic and dance sports, ball sports, martial arts, precision sports, strength sports and trend sports.
We dug through them all and came up with 10 sports you’re going to want to learn between now and 2021.
Parachuting
This isn’t your typical skydive. These adrenaline junkies execute a dangerous maneuver known as “swooping” to parachute in extremely fast before pulling up just in time to skim along the water to a certain point and then pull up again before landing long jump-style.
Extremely dangerous, but wow.
Korfball
It’s sort of like basketball with no net and no dribbling. According to Wikipedia, “the objective is to throw a ball through a bottomless basket that is mounted on a 3.5 m (11.5 feet) high pole.”
Here are highlights from a match between the national teams of England and Netherlands in 2010.
Sport climbing
This sport is pretty self explanatory, but you’ve got to see this hero climb a wall. Head over to First Avenue Rocks in downtown Birmingham. You’ve got six years to practice and get this fast.
Floorball
It’s hockey with a ball instead of a puck, and no ice. The video below, which was titled “Inspiration Floorball Video” (as if there was any other kind of floorball video), includes an all-out brawl about 1 minute and 10 second in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXcDS81e4ps
Artistic Roller Skating
Figure skating with no ice. Here’s a clip from the women’s longform program during the 2013 World Game.
Orienteering
Orienteering is pretty much racing through the wilderness using a map and a compass to find your way. The World Games calls it a “thinking sport,” because navigating through open country challenges the mind as well as the body.
Here are some “highlights” from the 2011 Oceania Long Distance Orienteering Championships in Australia, which includes the only orienteering theme song ever made.
Casting sport
It’s pretty much fishing with no fish. Accuracy and distance are what counts, and it all takes place on dry land.
Lifesaving
The World Games refers to this as an “utterly purposeful sport.” The best lifeguards in the world compete to see whose lifesaving skills are the best. If you’re in trouble off the Alabama Gulf Coast, you want one of these guys in the water.
Here’s the Lifesaving 4×25 Manikin Carry Really from the 2013 World Games
Aerobic Gymnastics
If Richard Simmons were a gymnast, this is what you’d get. Here’s Romania’s gold medal performance from the 2014 World Aerobic Gymnastics Championships.
Wushu
It’s like gymnastics floor routine meets Jackie Chan, and it’s awesome.
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
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