2009 World Games

The games featured sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games.

World Games VIII
第八屆世界運動會
Dì bā jiè shìjiè yùndònghuì

Motto Top Sports – High Spirits
Host city	Kaohsiung, Taiwan under the IWGA Designation: Chinese Taipei
Motto	Top Sports – High Spirits
Nations	101
Athletes	4,800 approx.
Events	165 (35 sports)
Opening	16 July 2009
Closing	26 July 2009
Opened by	President Ma Ying-jeou
Main venue	Kaohsiung National Stadium
← Duisburg 2005 Cali 2013 →

Nearly 6,000 athletes, officials, coaches, referees and others from 101 countries participated in the 2009 Kaohsiung World Games, setting a record high for the multi-sport competition. The International World Games Association (IWGA) President Ron Froehlich praised the July 16–26 games as the "best games ever."

The design of the emblem for The World Games 2009 is based on the first Chinese character in the city's name. The character " kao" (高) means high or superior in English. The toponym stylized as a multicolored ribbon aims to create an atmosphere of festivity and celebration. The warm colors, orange and magenta, at the top and green and blue at the bottom symbolize the sun rising over the ocean and mirror Kaohsiung well: a passionate city with plenty of sunshine – a vibrant metropolis by the sea.

 

Gao Mei (高妹) and Syong Ge (雄哥) are named after the host city, Kaohsiung (according to Tongyong Pinyin). They are intended to personify it as "a city of the sea and the sun", to emphasize "ecology and environmental protection", and to symbolize the "friendliness and hospitality" of the city's residents.

 

The opening ceremony, on July 16, was held in the Main Stadium, and involved 4,000 performers. It was designed to provide "a platform for the world to understand Taiwan better", and focused on music, dancing and depictions of Taiwanese culture, including its aboriginal culture. The ceremony was watched by an estimated 100 million people worldwide.

Among the foreign dignitaries in attendance was the President of Nauru, Marcus Stephen, one of Taiwan's diplomatic allies and himself a former athlete, having won seven gold medals in weightlifting at the Commonwealth Games.

Although China had sent athletes to compete, they were absent from the opening ceremony, reportedly due to Ma Ying-jeou inaugurating the Games in his capacity as the head of state.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu said the city has shown "soft" power in staging The World Games that concluded and praised Kaohsiung residents for their passion in participating in the event. The mayor spoke at a news conference held after the closing ceremony during which International World Games Association (IWGA) President Ron Froehlich praised the July 16–26 games as the "best games ever."

Chen noted that after the city was awarded the right to host the Games in 2005, it was determined to make it a success, and she said the city showed "confidence and competence" in staging the first international sports event held in Taiwan after "numerous daunting coordination challenges." She also praised the maturity of Kaohsiung residents, saying that their enthusiastic participation and passionate cheering for athletes from every country was "touching." Revenues from ticket sales at The World Games have been initially estimated at NT$65 million. Chen noted Froehlich's praise of Kaohsiung, which she said has displayed friendship, cooperation and community participation, and offered her best wishes to Cali, Colombia, which will host the next World Games in 2013.

She said Kaohsiung is an open, rich and pluralistic city that respects human rights and tolerates different views and political stances as long as they are expressed in a peaceful manners. Concerning the absence of the athletes from China, which was reported to be a boycott, from the opening and closing ceremonies of The World Games, she said that as a big country, she expected it to show more grace and tolerance.

Official sports

The 2009 World Games programme featured 31 official sports, and 5 invitational sports. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events, which were contested in each sports discipline.

Invitational sports

On 16 September 2009, the IWGA announced that there had been several doping violations at the recently completed 2009 Games. On 26 October 2009, the IWGA Anti-Doping Panel decided on punitive measures against five medal-winners (four bodybuilders and a sumo athlete). The measures included the stripping of three gold and two silver medals, as well as lifetime bans from The World Games for three bodybuilders. The IWGA has made no announcement of reallocation of the forfeited bodybuilding medals. The International Sumo Federation reallocated the medals for the affected sumo event. In 2010, all medals in the sport of bodybuilding were removed from the medal table at the host organizer's website (worldgames2009.tw, "The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung"), which is now archived. However, all medals as first bestowed still appear at The World Games website (theworldgames.org) in both look-up and full result reports. The sport of bodybuilding has not appeared at a subsequent edition of The World Games.

Official sports

The medal tally during the eighth World Games is as follows. Russia finished at the top of the final medal table. Excluded are four bodybuilding medals forfeited for doping and not reallocated. In two events there were two bronze medals awarded because of ties for third-place: women's 100m finswimming and women's life saving combined relay.

  *   Host nation (Chinese Taipei)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia (RUS)	19	13	15	47
2	Italy (ITA)	16	12	13	41
3	China (CHN)	14	10	5	29
4	United States (USA)	13	8	5	26
5	France (FRA)	11	14	13	38
6	Ukraine (UKR)	9	12	10	31
7	Chinese Taipei (TPE)*	8	9	7	24
8	Germany (GER)	6	6	10	22
9	South Korea (KOR)	6	3	5	14
10	Australia (AUS)	5	10	5	20
11	Great Britain (GBR)	4	6	9	19
12	Japan (JPN)	4	5	6	15
13	Colombia (COL)	4	5	3	12
14	Netherlands (NED)	4	5	2	11
15	Switzerland (SUI)	3	4	0	7
16	Brazil (BRA)	3	2	3	8
17	New Zealand (NZL)	2	4	5	11
18	Belgium (BEL)	2	4	1	7
19	Slovakia (SVK)	2	3	3	8
20	Finland (FIN)	2	3	1	6
21	Spain (ESP)	2	3	0	5
22	Slovenia (SLO)	2	2	0	4
23	Austria (AUT)	2	1	2	5
24	Croatia (CRO)	2	0	3	5
25	Mongolia (MGL)	1	3	0	4
26	Canada (CAN)	1	1	2	4
	Poland (POL)	1	1	2	4
28	Greece (GRE)	1	1	1	3
29	Romania (ROU)	1	1	0	2
30	Malaysia (MAS)	1	0	3	4
31	Thailand (THA)	1	0	2	3
	Venezuela (VEN)	1	0	2	3
33	Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH)	1	0	1	2
	Chile (CHI)	1	0	1	2
	Hungary (HUN)	1	0	1	2
	Indonesia (INA)	1	0	1	2
	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	1	0	1	2
38	Estonia (EST)	1	0	0	1
	Fiji (FIJ)	1	0	0	1
	Mexico (MEX)	1	0	0	1
	Vietnam (VIE)	1	0	0	1
42	Portugal (POR)	0	2	0	2
43	Egypt (EGY)	0	1	4	5
44	Norway (NOR)	0	1	2	3
	South Africa (RSA)	0	1	2	3
46	Azerbaijan (AZE)	0	1	1	2
	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	1	2
48	Argentina (ARG)	0	1	0	1
	Denmark (DEN)	0	1	0	1
	Dominican Republic (DOM)	0	1	0	1
	Hong Kong (HKG)	0	1	0	1
	Lithuania (LTU)	0	1	0	1
53	Turkey (TUR)	0	0	3	3
54	Montenegro (MNE)	0	0	2	2
55	Belarus (BLR)	0	0	1	1
	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	0	1	1
	Czech Republic (CZE)	0	0	1	1
	Israel (ISR)	0	0	1	1
	Luxembourg (LUX)	0	0	1	1
	Philippines (PHI)	0	0	1	1
	United Arab Emirates (UAE)	0	0	1	1
Totals (61 entries)		162	163	165	490