Seven cities, over 40 sports fields, more than 30 disciplines, parasports and parties on the beach for the greenest amateur sporting event ever. With the support of the Romagna Region and the municipalities involved: a week of sport and socialising,
5000 people expected.
At the official presentation, there were the majors of the municipalities involved, the Romagna region e Bruno Molea, president of CSIT
Four days of sport and five of social and cultural events, over 5 thousand athletes and families who will compete on over 40 sports fields located throughout the seven cities of the Romagna Region: Cervia, Cesena, Cesenatico, Forlì, Misano Adriatico, Ravenna and Riccione. From the 5th to the next 10th of September, all of these cities will become the World Sports Games, promoted by CSIT and organized here in Italy by AiCS, Associazione italiana cultura sport, one of the first sports promotion agency there. The WSG are organized on the Romagna Riviera with the support of the Emilia Romagna Region, the Municipality of Cervia – the city that will host Casa Italia and the Games operations center – and in collaboration with ACSI, another italian sports promotion agency. Sponsors of the event are also all the other six Municipalities involved, which directly collaborate to the success of the event, facilitating the access to sports venues.
The world sport games: the inclusive festival of the people
Sport is central, therefore, but not the only one. The World Amateur Games that will peacefully invade the Region are not a simply multi-sport events, but a social and multicultural ones. Organized in Italy by the Emilioc organizing committee, led by AiCS, the WSGs provide for a total take-over of the 5 thousand participants, coming from all over the world. From their arrival at the airport, on Tuesday the 5th, to their departure on Sunday the 10th, the athletes and their families are welcomed by the organizational machine which offers them, in addition to training and sports competitions, also tourist trips, traditional Romagna dinners, multi-ethnic convivials promoted by the international members of CSIT – from Mexico to Tunisia, from Northern Europe to Asia -, but also training courses, conferences and more. Among the meetings, there will be also the refresher course for journalists on the inclusive language of sport, or the conference conducted by Aned, the National Association of Hemodialysis Patients, Dialysis and Transplantation – Sports Sector – on the value of the mutual help, on the field as in the operating room.
And then parties, so many parties. The values at the heart of the Games remain those of the sociability and of the international dialogue of peace: it is no coincidence that the 7th edition of the World Sports Games will officially open with the opening ceremony of the Games to be held on Wednesday the 6th of September and which will consist on a colorful and multi-ethnic parade of all the competing delegations, from the Grand Hotel of Cervia to Piazza Garibaldi. There, the party will concentrate with the lighting of the Tripod, the opening declaration of the Games and the show of the Italian culture donated by the city and the organizing committee to the whole community,not only to the WSGs’participants. Four days later, the farewell ceremony will instead be held on the beach of the Grand Hotel in Cervia, with the declaration of the end of the Games, the handover to the nation which will host the Games in 2025, Greece, in detail, and then the musical party donated by the organizing committee to the citizens, with DJs from Radio Bruno, while dancing on the beach.
However, as already mentioned, sport remains at the centre. Over 30 sports disciplines played: 23 international championships (from the most popular sports, such as football, volleyball, gymnastics, to those more niche, such as bowls, chess and Mamanet, the inclusive sport for mothers), and 13 exhibitions sports from partner organizations – from dodgeball to golf, from American football to pole sports and much more. More than 40 sports facilities involved, from Carisport in Cesena to the Unieuro Arena in Forlì, from the Swimming Palace in Riccione to the school gyms on the Riviera up to the beaches of Marina di Ravenna and the sports palace in Misano Adriatico, not to mention the beach tennis and beach volleyball fields between Cervia and Cesenatico. A wave of sport that will be able, by the real nature of the World Sports Games, to include older people (specific activities are planned for the over 55s) and those with disabilities: the Romagna edition will in fact be the first “para-sports event” which will include therefore the total inclusion of athletes with disabilities, in sports competitions. No distinction, therefore, as occurs in the most famous Olympics, but a single event, without physical or social barriers.
Green Games and the focus on the territory
Inclusive, but also green. The 2023 World Amateur Games will also focus on respect for the environment. In fact, it will be the first truly green edition, destined not only to produce the least possible environmental impact but also to become a constant training in respect for nature. For this reason, to participants will be given plastic free gadgets and the places frequented by the participating athletes will be equipped with containers for separate waste collection. In addiction: competitions with prizes for waste collection (the AiCS Rifiuthlon®) and sustainable mobility will be promoted. For those staying within one kilometer of the sports field or gymnasium where the competitions will be held, transport will not be provided, but a walk or bicycle ride will be proposed; for the others, transport will be guaranteed by shuttles and buses that will travel to fill the spaces – while limiting the waiting times of the athletes as much as possible.
Respect for the territory will be hand-in-hand with the promotion of the territory itself: During those days Cervia will offer the now traditional “Sapore di Sale” festival which will be an opportunity for foreign guests to immerge themselves in the Italian, cultural and gastronomic specialties of the area. And there is no coincidence that the official mascot of the Games is Elio, the emblematic name assigned to the pink flamingo, symbol of the Cervia Salt Pans, which will wear the t-shirt of the CSIT athletes for the WSG.
The sponsors and the bond with the territory
More precisely, the World Sports Games supported by the Emilia Romagna Region boast the regional Plastic-Free logo because they are organized to minimize plastic consumption. Not only that: with the support of Battistini Vivai, AiCS and the organizing committee will give to each city involved a tree in memory of the passage of the World Sports Games as a positive impact on the territory and as a seed of peace. The event is also supported by Allianz for insurance coverage for AiCS athletes, Tecnocopi for digital supplies and connection on sports fields, Eyesportwear that dresses AiCS athletes in Italian colors. Media partners of the event are: Radio Bruno, Teleromagna, Corriere Romagna.
The actors involved
The 2023 edition was presented on May the 13th in Cervia by Bruno Molea, the first Italian president in the 110-year history of the CSIT(which brings together over 40 nations in the world and represents 230 million amateur sportsmen); by Giammaria Manghi, the Head of the Political Secretariat of the Presidency of the ER Region; Fabio Neroni, the general manager of WSG23, Maurizio Toccafondi, the vicar vice president of AiCS, and by local institutions: Massimo Medri, the mayor of Cervia, Gianluca Zattini, the mayor of Forlì, Fabrizio Piccioni, the mayor of Misano Adriatico, Daniela Angelini, the mayor of Riccione, and Jacopo Agostini, the councilor for the budget of Cesenatico.