International Games News

January 1998

Contents

Busy Winter Games Schedule

Asian Games Economic Update.

Moscow Youth Games Venues Inspected by Samaranch.

Sydney Youth Games Proposal Meets With Cool Response.

National Anthem World Record !

Busy Winter Games Schedule

The Nagano Olympic Games are not the only games in town this winter. Keep your eyes open for these Winter Games and visit the games this month page (in the current month) on the International Games Archive.

The Winter X Games, Crested Butte Colorado January 15-18

ESPN’s popular games showcasing "extreme sports" returns for a second winter edition. Over $200,000 dollars in prize money will be awarded to athletes competing in snowboarding, snow mountain biking, ice climbing, and new for this years event Skiboarding and Snowmobile SnoCross- a snowmobile race on a short motocross style race course. ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC’s will televise the action.

1^st Winter World Masters Games, Ottawa, Canada January 23- February 1

Athletes age 30 and over will converge in Canada’s capital to compete in traditional outdoor winter sports, from skiing and figure skating to ice hockey, as well as some less strenuous pastimes such as snooker and darts. Also included in the games will be indoor track and field , swimming, Indoor Tennis and a few other traditional summertime activities. 38 sports will be contested in all including Wheelchair Basketball and Sledge Hockey for disabled athletes.

International Firefighters Winter Games, South Lake Tahoe March 1-5

Firefighters will gather at Heavenly Valley and the Kirkwood Ski Resort for skiing and snowboarding, as well as socializing with firefighters from around the world. An auction during the games will raise funds to support the Eagle Mount Ski Program of Great Falls, Montana, a ski training program for those with physical or developmental disabilities.

International Police Winter Games, Innsbruck Austria March 1-5

If you’d like to travel a little farther stop by Innsbruck and participate or watch the men and women in blue take on the slopes in Innsbruck the first week in March. This annual event is being held in Europe for the first time this year, and includes alpine and nordic skiing, biathlon and hockey

Winter Paralympics, Nagano Japan March 5-14

Two weeks after the winter Olympians pack their skis and skates and head for home, Nagano will host it’s second Olympic Games in a months time, the Winter Paralympics. The athletes will use the same venues and be housed in the same Olympic Village as their Olympic Games counterparts.

Arctic Winter Games, Yellowknife Northwest Territories, March 15-20

The Fifteenth Arctic Winter Games return to the city that first hosted them Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Originally a competition between Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, the games have expanded in the 90s to include Greenland and two Russian regions Tyumen and Magadan, and include both sporting and cultural activities.

Traditional winter sports of alpine and nordic skiing, hockey and biathlon are contested as well as a the not as common snowshoe biathlon and dog mushing. Indoor sports including badminton, basketball, soccer, table tennis, volleyball and wrestling.

The highlight events of Arctic Winter Games are always the traditional indigenous events of both the Eskimo (Arctic Sports) and Indian (Dene) games. One Eskimo event, the snosnake, a javelin like spear is flung underhand for distance along the surface of the snow. The one leg hop, two leg hop, airplane and knuckle hop are also crowd favorites.

Winter World Corporate Games, Seefeld Austria, March 15 -20

Employees from around the world meet in Austria for events and fun.

Asian Games Economic Update

The Bangkok, Thailand Asian Games organizers received disappointing news this month when a major sponsor, Samart Corporation, reduced it's pledge of sponsorship from 10 million to 2 million dollars. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) was considering filing a lawsuit to force the company to stick to it's contract.

The setback comes after Asian Games organizers had rallied this past fall to convince the OCA that Bangkok would in fact have venues and organization in place to stage the games, which are to be held in December of 1998.

Moscow Youth Games Venues Inspected by Samaranch.

Juan Antonio Samaranch was in Moscow in January inspecting venues and the games village for this summers World Youth Games. The IOC president returned satisfied that preparations were on schedule and was especially impressed with the renovation of Luzhniki stadium.

Sydney Youth Games Proposal Meets With Cool Response.

A proposal by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch to hold a World Youth Games in Sydney, Australia in 1999, was met with little enthusiasm from the main organizers of the Sydney Olympics. Intended as a test and preparatory competition the games were to be for athletes under the age of 18 who had never participated in an Olympic Games. John Coates an Australian IOC member stated that he doubted the international federations would have time to fit an event of this magnitude into their event calendars.

National Anthem World Record !

Michael Sauser, a twenty-five year old student from Switzerland, will be mentioned in the Guinness book of World Records for his feat of singing 188 national anthems, in 75 different languages. Sauser who is currently writing a thesis on the topic, who was accompanied by his Belgian pianist, Gilbert de Greeve, sang each anthem by memory. (IOC Press 1/16/98)

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