With the 2022 World Games in Birmingham just a few days away, Alabama NewsCenter is providing a snapshot of all the sports that will be played during the 10 days of gaming competitions. Today, we present the immense variety of Trend Sports.
Two Air Sports disciplines are offered at the World Games: Canopy Piloting and Drone Racing.
Canopy Piloting is one of the most exciting disciplines in Air Sports. The event tests a parachutist’s ability to control a canopy accurately at high speed. After jumping from an aircraft, competitors run down to a performance area – a long stretch of water known as a “swooping pond.” There, as they descend around the swooping pond, they are scored on speed, accuracy and distance. In the freestyle round, scores are given for technical difficulty, presentation and landing.
This discipline requires a high level of skill and experience. Most of the top competitors are professional parachutists or work for parachute manufacturers on the development of new canopies.
Drone Racing tests the pilot’s ability to happen a drone around a purpose-built track, often flying through gates and around obstacles to reach the finish line in the fastest time. Fast-paced and exciting, it is one of the fastest growing Air Sports in the world. The drones used in Drone Racing competitions are usually built by the pilots themselves and are designed for speed and agility. Radio-controlled with electric battery-powered engines, they often travel at speeds in excess of 100 mph. That’s why Drone Racing pilots wear headphones with a first-person view from the first person. This recording allows both pilots and fans to enjoy the illusion of flying at high speeds, all without taking their feet off the ground.
There are two disciplines of Canoe at the World Games: Canoe Polo and Canoe Marathon.
Canoe Polo, also known as kayak polo, is one of the competitive disciplines of canoeing / kayaking. Polo combines sailing and ball handling skills within a contact team game. Each team has five players on the pitch competing to score in their opponent’s goal, which is suspended 2 meters above the water. The ball can be thrown by hand or exploded with a paddle to pass between the players and shoot at the goal. Canoes / kayaks are designed specifically for polo and are faster and lighter than typical canoes / kayaks. This gives them superior maneuverability. Polo paddle blades have thick, rounded edges to prevent injury. The paddles are lightweight and designed with the power of pulling and controlling the ball in mind.
In the Canoe Marathon, the competitor runs on a long-distance water course that is not subject to the prescribed standards. The competitor must take the water as found and be prepared, if necessary, to carry his or her kayak around an impermeable barrier or between two waterways.
The 2022 World Games will include two Duathlon disciplines: Standard Relay and Mixed Relay.
Duathlon consists of a running foot, a cycling foot and a final, second running foot. Duathlons are done over sprint, standard, middle and long distances. The time starts when the race starts and ends when an athlete crosses the finish line.
Underwater has one discipline offered at the World Games: Fin swimming. This event is a sport that involves swimming with the use of fins (either monofin or bi-fins) on the surface of the water using a snorkel, or underwater with a monofin by holding the breath. There are three categories of fin swimming in the World Games: Apnoea, Surface and Bi-fins.
Apnea swimming is an underwater swim with a mask and monofin while holding your breath. The races are held at a distance of 50 meters. Swimmer surfaces must be submerged for the duration of the race or risk being disqualified.
Facial swimming is swimming on the surface of the water using a mask, snorkel and monofin. The races are held for distances of 100, 200, 400 and 4 × 100 (relay) meters. Swimmers must remain afloat at all times throughout the race, except when starting or making turns at the end of the pool (where immersion is permitted at a distance of 15 meters).
Bi-fins swimming is an event where athletes swim on the water with a mask, snorkel and a pair of thorns using a crawler style. The races take place for distances of 50 and 100 meters. Swimmers must remain afloat at all times for the duration of the race, except when starting or making turns at the end of the pool (where a 15-meter dive is permitted).
Flying Disc has one discipline offered in The World Games: Ultimate.
Ultimate is a contactless, self-authoritative team sport that is played with a flying disc (or Frisbee). Two teams of seven players compete on a playing field roughly the same length as a football field, but narrower. At each end of the playing field there is an end zone. Each team defends one end zone. Score a goal if a player catches a disc in the area of the opposite end. The player holding the disc must keep one foot upright. Stretching and knees with the other foot is allowed. A team can advance the disc to the opposite end zone with any number of passes, including one long throw to the end zone. If a pass is incomplete (not caught before touching the ground), caught outside the bounds, caught by a defending player or deflected from the air by the defense, it is a turnover and the opposing team immediately gains possession, plays to score. the opposite direction. Defenders may not take the disc from an offensive player who has secured a catch. Contact is also not allowed for the defender to mark the offensive player with the disc, and the defender must leave the offensive player a specified amount of space.
Rescue is played in indoor pools, in the same way that pool lifeguards are trained. The sport consists of a series of competition disciplines designed to develop and demonstrate life-saving skills, fitness and motivation. Rescue tests an athlete’s skills in rescue, accident prevention and emergency care. Lifesaving events replicate common rescue techniques and include Mannequin Carry (an athlete swims and dives to retrieve a submerged mannequin and carries it back to the finish) and Mannequin Tow (an athlete swims with a mannequin, attaches a rescue tube around it and tows ). back to finish).
Orientation combines racing with navigation. It is a time race in which individual participants use a very detailed map to choose routes and navigate diverse and unfamiliar terrain to visit checkpoints in sequence. Courses can range from forests to urban environments. A standard orientation course consists of a start; a series of control sites which are marked with circles, connected by lines and numbered in the order they are to be visited; and finish. The control site rings are centered on the feature to be found. This feature is also defined by control descriptions (a list that orienters receive along with their map). Outside the field, a control flag marks the place the orienter wants to visit. To verify a visit, the orienter uses an electronic “punch” using a finger stick with a chip inside that records the time at each control they visit. The route between the controls is not specified and is entirely up to the orienter.
The 2022 World Games will offer three disciplines: Middle Distance, Sprint and Sprint Relay.
Distance, often called “Middle”, is a shorter race between countries than the classic. With a winning time in the region of 30 minutes, it puts more emphasis on fine navigation rather than route-choice navigation.
Sprint involves very short races, with winning times of about 12-15 minutes. They are kept in city parks and other more urban environments with control sites that include benches, litterbins, sculptures and other items common to urban parks.
Sprint Relay is a relay race run by a team of competitors. Each individual leads the course, and the result is based on the team’s collective time.
Roller Sports uses man-powered vehicles that require rolling, either by gravity or through various pushing techniques. Three Roller Sports disciplines are offered at The World Games: Artistic Skating, Inline Hockey and Speed Skating.
Figure Skating is similar to figure skating, except it is done on roller skates. Combining figure skating with refined strength and training, Figure Skating is a dynamic and demanding sport. Two categories of Artists are offered at the World Games. Free Skating incorporates jumps, spins and footwork into a program set to music. Couples Dance combines two skaters performing innovative lifts and dance elements all set to music.
Inline Hockey is a team sport played on in-line skates, in which players use a hockey stick to shoot a plastic puck at their opponent’s target to gain points. It is considered a contact sport, but body checking is prohibited. There are five players (including the goalkeeper) from each team on the rink each time. Players skate across the floor trying to gain control of the puck and score a goal against the opposing team.
Speed Skating involves racing on-line skates. There are two categories of Speed Skating: Track and Road. At the Track, the race takes place on a patinodrome (arena for this sport) with curved curves that are 200 meters in circumference. In a Street, races can be held on a regular sidewalk. The tracks are marked by multiple pylons that create a road track.
Sport Climbing is a form of rock climbing performed on artificial structures. Three Sport Climbing disciplines are offered at The World Games: Lead, Speed and Boulder.
Lead involves climbers attaching themselves to a length of climbing rope and climbing a route while periodically attaching protection (quickdraws or traditional protection) to the surface of the route and cutting into it. The main climber must have another person acting as guarantor. Because a lead climber does not have an upward anchor point while climbing, only the legs and body of the climber are used to affect the upward progress.
Speed is a climbing discipline in which speed is the ultimate goal. Competitors climb on a slightly hung wall with support from above. It involves climbers competing on the same route.
Boulder is done on artificial rock walls, known as rocks, without the use of ropes or straps. Different holds are attached to the wall to create “problems” (the sequence of movements that a climber performs to complete the climb). The walls often have protruding upright surfaces that force climbers to employ highly technical movements while supporting most of their weight thanks to their upper body strength.
Waterski and Wakeboard are towed water sports in which individual riding skis or wakeboards are pulled behind a boat.
Waterski has three categories: Slalom, Trick and Jump.
In slalom, skiers use only one ski with their feet facing forward, one in front of the other. Skiers have to navigate around a six-lane course to complete the pace. While the speed of the boat is fixed, the length of the rope is not – shortened after each successful step. The turn buoys are positioned 11.5 meters from the center of the slalom track to ensure that as the rope is shortened, skiers are required to use the momentum generated by their turns to swing to the side of the boat. and reach out to get their skis. around the next buoy. Wins the skier who successfully passes around the most buoys on the shortest rope.
In a trick, skiers use small oval-shaped skis. Skiers are given two 20-second runs, during which they perform a series of pre-selected tricks. One step is for hand tricks, which includes facial turns, rotations on awakening and flips. The second step includes foot tricks, which are done by completing turns and awakening rotations with only one foot attaching the skier to the handle. A trick cannot be repeated and each has a specific point value. A panel of judges evaluates which tricks have been completed correctly and assigns a predetermined point value to each trick that has been successfully completed. The skier with the most points wins.
In Jump, skiers use two long skis to ride on a jump ramp in an attempt to travel the longest distance. As a skier approaches the ramp, the skier will slide behind the boat in a series of cuts to generate speed and angle and will hit the base of the jump ramp at an almost right angle to the boat. The winner is the skier who travels the most calculated distance and successfully rides away.
Wakeboard has one category in The World Games: Freestyle.
In Wakeboard, the board is a small board, mostly rectangular, thin with a very small displacement and a shoe-like binding. The sport is a combination of water skiing, snowboarding and surfing. Using board techniques, the rider can walk out of the wake or quickly cut towards him. Jumps are made by riding on the awakening and launching into the air. While in the air, the rider tries to do tricks. The rider is allowed one fall during his two passes and the judges award points for three distinct elements – performance (technical difficulty), intensity (trick scale) and composition (variety). The rider who gets the highest score wins.
For schedules and information on all sports tickets featured at the 2022 World Games, click here.
An earlier version of this story was published by The Birmingham Times.
