World Sports Festival
The World Sports Festival (WSF) is a four-day international youth sports tournament that takes place annually in Vienna and Lower Austria. Under the auspices of UNESCO , young athletes from all parts of the world compete in sport and make an active contribution to international understanding. In addition to UNESCO, Unicef has also been on board as an educational partner since 2012.
The festival motto is "Sports for a better world!"
background
At the World Sports Festival, athletes between the ages of 11 and 21 compete in team and individual sports. In addition to the sporting challenges, the main focus of the tournament is the unifying component and the formation of international friendships between the participants. Fairness, a sense of community, openness and discovering new horizons are the focus of the event.
history
The event has been taking place in Vienna and Lower Austria since 2007 . In 2008, the World Sports Festival was awarded the Austrian Event Award in gold, has welcomed around 15,000 participants since its inception and has thus become one of the largest youth sports events in Europe.
Many well-known sporting greats have accompanied the American delegations as All Star Head coaches. Olympic medal winners such as Tiffany Milbrett (US soccer women, gold medal Atlanta 96 and silver medal Sydney 2000), Laura Berg (softball gold medal 1996, 2000 and 2004 and silver medal 2008), Kirsty Coventry (swimming Gold medal 2004), Lenny Krayzelburg (swimming gold medal 2000 and 2004), Rulon Gardner (wrestling gold medal 2000 and bronze medal 2004) as well as other world champions and recognized athletes at the World Sports Festival.
In 2012 the World Sports Festival, which is also known under the name Youth Friendship Games Austria in America, took place from July 5th to 8th. 2500 athletes from 26 nations participated in the sports of soccer , basketball , swimming , volleyball , tennis , bowling , wrestling , American football , table tennis , racketlon , badminton , squash and American football.
The origins of the participating nations are spread over four continents from Europe to Asia and North America to Africa .
Austrian sports greats such as Toni Polster , European swimming champion Maxim Podoprigora , cycling world champion Franz Stocher or beach volleyball pioneer Oliver Stamm support the festival as "WSF ambassadors", as do Superbowl winner Derrick Mayes from the United States.
procedure
The festival extends over a period of four days and takes place annually at the beginning of July. On the first day the registration of the participants and a common first meeting in the evening in the Players Town - the social center of the action in the Eventhotel Pyramide in Vösendorf, on the following day the preliminary round matches and the opening ceremony including the invasion of the nations take place. The third day is dedicated to the tournaments, on the last day the finals are played and the winners are chosen.
target group
In principle, the applicants for the World Sports Festival are in the popular sports segment. Most of the participants come from clubs, and individual athletes without club membership and school classes ensure a wide range of performance levels.