2009 World Games

China had the Olympics, but Taiwan had the 'World Games'!!!!!
And this is where everyone says 'What's that?!' I wasn't too sure either before, so I had to look it up, and what I found out was, the World Games hold all the competitions that are not yet ratified by the Olympics, but might be in the future. So, sports such as skydiving, rock climbing, fin swimming, tug of war, all have a place in the World Games.
And, as the games were being held in the next city down from Tainan, my friends and I figured this was too good an opportunity to miss.

Kaohsiung, and then the guys at the sumo arena












The sumo wrestling included both men's and women's competition. It was an open class competition, which means that all weights could fight each other, which is why you can see some big guys against slimmer guys. Not always did the bigger fighters win, as some were knocked out by smaller, faster adversaries. However, in the end, bigger was better!
First, the ladies category









and after the women's, .... the men's.


















Some of the weight classes









At the 'Flying Dragon' stadium we watched "Ultimate" (Frisbee). At first, it was hard to get into the whole excitement of the game as I had never watched it before, so it was really hard to cheer for a team when you don't know what's going on e.g. Was that a point? However, by the end of the day, I really got into it and it turned out to be my favourite event to watch as the sport had a really laid back feel to it.
The first match we watched was the British one, and as it seemed that I was the only British guy in the stadium that was cheering for them, at the end of the game one the players came over to thank my friends and me. Even though team GB lost, they made a fan by showing their appreciation!










Ultimate disc









The wavy stadium cover, which looks great, but unfortunately does little to protect you from the rain and the heat (which Taiwan has lots of!!)









Another sport we watched were gymnastics, which included acrobatics, tandem trampolining, and run-and-jump-on-trampoline-twice-and-spin-and-flip (although this may not be its official name). I must say that these were the least enjoyable of the games as they seemed kind of repetitive to the untrained eye. However, I did really enjoy the acrobatics thanks to its 'unintentional humor' (blades of glory-esq), and the skill and strength of the guys!

Acrobatics












Tandem trampolining and the 'other sport'