World Games 1981

World Games I
Host city United States Santa Clara
Nations participating 58
Athletes participating 1,400 (est.)[1]
Events 102
Opening ceremony 24 July 1981 (1981-07-24)
Closing ceremony 2 August 1981 (1981-08-02)
Officially opened by Dr. Un Yong Kim of Korea, president of World Games I executive committee [2]
Main venue Buck Shaw Stadium

The 1981 World Games were the first World Games and were held in Santa Clara, California in the United States. The games featured sports that were not included in the Olympics, including tug-of-war, racquetball, baseball and softball, artistic roller skating, roller hockey, roller speed skating, fin swimming, karate, women's water polo, bowling, bodybuilding, casting and taekwondo.[2] Best estimates for attendance figures were that about 80,000 spectators witnessed the first World Games.[1]

Titles

102 titles were awarded in 16 sports, including one title in one invitational sport.[3] A structured invitational sport program did not exist at the time. An agreement was reached with FINA in the lead-up to the games not to allow women's water polo athletes to march in the opening ceremony, to assuage the displeasure of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for its being included in the program.[4] Boxing was also to have been contested in these games and was featured on organizers' promotional materials. However, AIBA withdrew the sport from the program in the weeks before the opening of the games because of IOC disapproval.[4]

     as invitational sport

Sport Titles[5][6]Notes
Badminton 5 China, in its first summer multi-sport event since the 1936 Summer Olympics, competed in badminton only, winning 4 gold medals.
Baseball 1 venue: San Jose Municipal Stadium
Bodybuilding 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger, later governor of California, carried the flag of the International Federation of Bodybuilders in the opening ceremony.
Bowling 3
Casting 11 venue: Oak Grove High School, San Jose
Finswimming 12 venue: Santa Clara Aquatic Center
Gymnastics:
Trampoline 6
Tumbling 2
Karate 9
Powerlifting 9
Racquetball 4
Roller sports: Inline skates were not used.
Artistic skating 4 venue: Cal Skate, Milpitas
Speed skating 6 venue: Great America Park, Santa Clara
Roller hockey 1 venue: Cal Skate, Milpitas
Softball 2 venue: Sunnyvale Sports Complex
Taekwondo 10
Tug of war 2 venue: Buck Shaw Stadium
Water polo 1 women's teams
Water skiing 8 venue: Berkeley Aquatic Park, Berkeley
Total 102

Medal Table

The medal tally during the first World Games is as follows. USA was the over-all champion of this edition.[6]

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  United States 37 38 25 100
2  South Korea 9 3 1 13
3  Italy 7 12 17 36
4  France 7 6 6 19
5  Japan 7 4 5 16
6  Canada 5 5 6 16
7  United Kingdom 4* 4 4 12
8  West Germany 4 0 5 9
9  Norway 4 1 3 8
10  China 4 0 0 4
11  Netherlands 3 4 5 12
12  Belgium 2 0 4 6
13  Venezuela 2 0 0 2
14  Australia 1 4 5 10
15  Sweden 1* 4 3 8
16  Austria 1 2 3 6
17   Switzerland 1 2 1 4
18  Finland 1 2 0 3
19  Chinese Taipei 1 1 1 3
20  New Zealand 1 0 0 1
 Portugal 1 0 0 1
22  Spain 0 3 3 6
23  Mexico 0 2 5 7
24  Argentina 0 1 2 3
 Denmark 0 1 2 3
 Ivory Coast 0 1 2 3
27  Egypt 0 1 1 2
28  Thailand 0 1 0 1
29  Indonesia 0 0 2 2
 India 0 0 2 2
31  Bahamas 0 0 1 1
Totals† 103 102 114 319

* The mixed badminton title was won by a pair of players from Sweden and Great Britain. Both nations are counted as having won a gold medal.

† Two bronze medals were awarded in each badminton, karate-kumite and taekwondo event. No bronze medals were awarded in 8 of the 9 powerlifting events and the women's synchronized trampoline event. No silver medal was awarded in one powerlifting event. In women's individual trampoline, Canada and USA tied for the silver medal.

References

  1. 1 2 Sargis, Joe (August 3, 1981). "For the real sports fan, the name of the game is competition". United Press International. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  2. 1 2 Sargis, Joe (July 24, 1981). "With a simple ceremony, a touch of pageantry and...". United Press International. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
  3. ↑ "Santa Clara, USA 1981 Programme Sports". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
  4. 1 2 Berkow, Ira (July 28, 1981). "UNHERALDED SPORTS EXERT A PULL, TOO". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
  5. ↑ "Santa Clara, USA 1981 Calendar & Results". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
  6. 1 2 "Results of the World Games". International World Games Association. Retrieved 2015-10-25.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, January 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.