Chengdu wins bid for 2025 World Games

GOLDEN COAST, Australia - Southwestern Chinese city Chengdu won the bid to host the 2025 World Games here on Thursday.

The decision was made by the International World Games Association (IWGA) in its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the SportAccord Convention held in Gold Coast of Australia.

The AGM, with representatives from 37 IWGA member federations, unanimously ratified the decision of the IWGA Executive Committee taken the previous day to award the hosting right to Chengdu, after a comprehensive bid evaluation and an on-site inspection to the city in March this year.

Mayor of Chengdu City Luo Qiang and IWGA President Jose Perurena signed the organizer agreement, under the witness of Yu Zaiqing, vice president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Chinese Olympic Committee.

"China organized the best multi-sport events in the history for all the different sports," said Perurena, adding the World Games will help promote new sports in China.

Chengdu is the capital city of Southwest China's Sichuan Province. In the past three years, Chengdu has hosted more than a hundred top-level national sport events and more than 50 international sport events.

"Chengdu highly appreciates the concept of the IWGA and believe that it is in line with Chengdu's development philosophy," said Chengdu mayor Luo.

It will be the 12th edition of the World Games in Chengdu while Birmingham of the United States will hold the tournament in July 2021.

Founded in 1980, the International World Games Association is a non-governmental and nonprofit international organization recognized by the IOC.

The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the IWGA under the patronage of the IOC. The World Games are staged over a period of 11 days, with approximately 30 official sports in the program.