EN
HR
The LA28 Olympic Games recently marked three years to go by revealing the first version of the competition calendar, sparking excitement among participating sports, especially the five new additions to the programme. Four of the five additional sports are set to steal the spotlight at the upcoming World Games in Chengdu, China: baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash.
The 12th edition of The World Games, a quadrennial, international multi-sport event which primarily showcases sports and disciplines that are not traditionally on the Olympic programme, will take place from 7-17 August with more than 4000 athletes competing in 34 sports comprising 60 disciplines and 255 medal events.
Chengdu 2025 will serve as an exciting prelude for the aforementioned four sports to showcase their global appeal and Olympic charm. The International World Games Association (IWGA) has launched a dedicated global streaming platform, The World Games Live, to ensure that fans from all over the world can enjoy the action. So what should we watch out for?
BASEBALL/SOFTBALL
For the Olympics in Los Angeles, baseball-softball is being considered as a combined sport with two distinct events (men's baseball and women's softball), as was also the case in Tokyo. However, The World Games 2025 programme will only feature softball - its fourth total appearance in the multi-sport event. Chengdu will also see the return of the men’s softball event for the first time since Santa Clara 1981.
Softball is directly derived from baseball, with primary differences in field dimensions, ball size, pitching style, and game length. Softball uses a larger ball, a smaller field, and underhand pitching from a flat ground, while baseball uses a smaller ball, a larger field, and overhand pitching from a raised pitcher's mound. A standard softball game lasts seven innings, while baseball games are nine.
In Chengdu, the men’s softball competition (August 6-10) will precede the women’s (August 13-17) at the Xindu Better City Softball Arena. The USA is the most successful softball nation at the World Games, having won the gold medal in all the previous editions (three for the women and one for the men).
The women, ranked second in the world, will face fierce opposition from their strongest rivals Japan, the reigning world champions and reigning Olympic champions from Tokyo 2020, while the men, currently ranked seventh in the world, have the likes of Venezuela, newly crowned world champions, and Japan, the top-ranked nation in the world, to contend with in order to retain the title they won 44 years ago. Venezuela’s Maiker Pimentel, who earned MVP honours at this year’s World Cup, is the man of the moment following his dominant individual performance at this year’s men’s World Cup in Canada.
In the women’s competition, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan and the Netherlands have all medalled in previous editions of the World Games. For Japan, gold in Chengdu will not only give them their first World Games title but also make them the first nation to simultaneously hold the three biggest titles in the sport - Olympic Games, WBSC World Cup and TWG. One of the greatest softball players in the history of the game, pitcher Yukiko Ueno, 43, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and three-time world champion is set to grace The World Games and will be hoping to add to her impressive legacy.
WOMEN:
Group A: China, Chinese Taipei, Netherlands, USA
Group B: Australia, Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico
MEN:
Group A: Argentina, Czechia, Japan, Venezuela
Group B: Australia, Canada, Singapore, USA
FLAG FOOTBALL
Flag football is a modern, non-contact variation of American football where players wear flags typically attached to a belt. So instead of “tackling” the person in possession of the ball, the opposing team needs to remove one or both of their flags to stop the game. It is considered the most inclusive and accessible format of American football.
The United States has been the most dominant force in the sport, with the men’s team claiming its fifth consecutive and sixth overall world title last year, while the women became world champions for the third time in a row.
Flag football was included in a global multi-sport event for the first time at The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, marking a landmark moment in the history of the sport as it continues to spread rapidly around the world.
While the US men’s team asserted their superiority on home soil to win the gold medal at Birmingham 2022, the women were stunned in the final by Mexico, another flag football powerhouse - particularly in the women’s category - also with three world titles to its name.
The World Games in Chengdu will feature only a women’s competition. The top seven women’s teams from the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships qualified to join hosts China. The USA will take on Austria, Canada and host nation China in Group A. Mexico are in Group B with Japan (Asia-Oceania champions), Great Britain (European champions) and Spain. Games will be played at the Chengdu No. 7 High School Eastern Campus Athletics Field from 14 to 17 August, with each team playing at least four games. In each game, teams of five on-field players will go head to head over two fast-paced 20-minute halves to determine the winner.
Mexico’s captain and quarterback, Diana Flores, who is widely regarded as the face of flag football, a global ambassador for the NFL and IFAF, and her teammates are all out to defend their title in Chengdu. Since becoming the Most Valuable Player at the last edition in Birmingham, the 27-year-old has been one of the most prominent figures in the sport, featuring in an award-winning NFL Super Bowl ad and taking part in the Paris 2024 Olympic torch relay.
Quarterback and captain Vanita Krouch, who turns 45 in September, is USA women’s most decorated player, having only lost once out of 34 games in her international career - the 2022 World Games gold medal game against Mexico. The three-time world champion (2018, 2021 and 2024) and gold medallist in the first-ever IFAF Americas Continental Flag Football Championship in 2023, will be looking to upgrade her World Games medal in Chengdu.
Another interesting fact about the flag football competition in Chengdu is that hosts China will be making their international competition debut and will also compete for the first time in the IFAF Asia-Oceania continental tournament this year.
LACROSSE
Ahead of its significant return to the Olympic stage in more than a century, following its medal events in 1904 and 1908, Lacrosse will be making its third The World Games appearance from 7-11 August this year with the women’s sixes competition at the Chengdu No. 7 High School Eastern Campus Athletics Field, the same venue for flag football.
The sixes, a shorter, faster-paced version of the sport that was launched in 2020, made its debut at the global level with 16 men’s and women’s teams taking part in the last edition of The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. Before that, the full-field 10v10 format lacrosse featured at Wrocław 2017.
One of the biggest stories of Birmingham 2022 was the participation of the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy or the Six Nations, the Indigenous people who invented Lacrosse. Initially ruled ineligible because they didn‘t have an NOC, The World Games later reversed their decision following an international outcry and a change.org petition that drew over 50,000 signatures. The Haudenosaunee men‘s team placed fifth and the women‘s team finished eighth in Birmingham. The Confederacy, which will not be in Chengdu, is now pushing to be eligible for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Canada and the United States, the powerhouses of the sport, are set to rekindle their rivalry in the women-only event in Chengdu after both countries claimed gold and silver, respectively, in 2022. The top four finishers in Birmingham automatically qualified for Chengdu 2025, joining hosts China. Other qualification routes were the 2025 Women’s European Sixes Qualifier and the 2025 Asia-Pacific Women’s Championship
Defending gold medalists Canada are in Pool A alongside the hosts China, Great Britain and Japan. The defending silver and bronze medalists in the United States and Australia, are in Pool B alongside Ireland and Czechia. Aurora Cordingley, who led all players with 22 points in 2022, coming on 13 goals and nine assists, is one of eight players returning from the gold-medal winning team in Birmingham. Meanwhile the USA has overhauled its squad in the three years since its silver medal at The World Games. The US roster features five players from the team that won the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship in 2022, including Marie McCool who was in the All-World Team of the tournament.
Lacrosse is the oldest team sport in North America and one of the oldest sports in the world with roots dating back to around 1100 A.D. In the sport, players use long-handled sticks with mesh pockets to catch, carry, and pass a small rubber ball. A lacrosse game begins with a “face-off”.
SQUASH
En route to its long-awaited Olympic debut in Los Angeles, squash has been to every edition of The World Games since 1997 except in 2001, raising its global profile. It arrives in Chengdu with a new aura. Although some of the sport’s biggest names, including the current world champions Mostafa Asal and Nour El Sherbini, both from Egypt, will not be competing in Chengdu, squash still promises thrilling performances.
Men’s world no. 11 Victor Crouin from France and women’s world no. 6 Satomi Watanabe from Japan are the highest ranked stars among the 62 players set to compete in the singles events in Chengdu. While European champion Crouin eyes a successful title defence in the men’s category, Asian Games bronze medallist Watanabe, the first Japanese player ever to reach the top 10 of the Professional Squash Association World Rankings, will be looking to claim her first World Games title in the women’s event.
Other players to watch include Pakistan's Noor Zaman, who in April became the first-ever men’s U23 world champion, Switzerland’s Dimitri Steinmann, who led Switzerland to bronze at last year’s World Squash Team Championships, and Hong Kong’s duo of Tsz Kwan Lau (also known as Alex Lau) and Tze Lok Ho (also known as Tomato Ho), who secured the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, at the Asian Individual Championships in June.
In this racket and ball sport played indoors inside a four-walled court, Egypt is in a league of its own, with four women and six men featuring in the singles top 10 of the Professional Squash Association World Rankings. Last year, Egypt’s men and women successfully defended their World Team Championship crowns in Hong Kong, China. This year, El Sherbini equalled the all-time record of Malaysian legend Nicol David with her eighth world title in nine years.
However, that Egyptian dominance has not been extended to the World Games, where the North African country has only recorded one gold and two bronze medals. France is the most successful squash nation at the World Games with three gold, three silver and three bronze medals, followed by Malaysia with three gold and two bronze medals. Nicol David has won the most medals: three golds and one bronze.
The men’s and women’s singles competitions in Chengdu will run from 8-12 August at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Centre, which recently hosted the Summer FISU World University Games in 2023.
Chibuogwu Nnadiegbulam - AIPS Media Photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images, World Squash, World Lacrosse, Screenshot
