35 Candidates will be Vying to Win the Titles

35 Candidates will be Vying to Win the Titles

IWGA Athlete and Team of the Year 2022

The races are about to start: who will be named as The World Games Athlete of the Year and The World Games Team of the Year 2022? Online votes, starting on 10 January, will decide who will be crowned the best of the best. The top performers at TWG 2022 in Birmingham, USA will get the chance of another title.

A total of 23 athletes and 12 teams, proposed by the member federations of the International World Games Association (IWGA), are up for election. The athletes or teams must have taken part in the Games, held from 7th to 17th July in the state of Alabama. Anna Jacobson, IWGA Head of Communications, expects tight races for the titles Athlete and Team of the Year 2022: “With The World Games 2022 still very much in mind, I am sure the fans will be eager to see their favourite win.”

The online voting platform will be launched on the IWGA website, theworldgames.org, early in January 2023. The first round of voting will close around 22nd January and determine the ten athlete and seven team finalists. The final round of voting will begin from zero votes again, and it will last until 31st January 2023, when the winners will be announced. The winners – athlete and team (first place, runner-up, second runner-up) will receive trophies.

Voting will also be promoted on the IWGA Facebook Channel, Instagram and Twitter Accounts. This means that supporters of a candidate will be able to share their enthusiasm and encourage other fans to support an athlete or team.

The World Games fans can choose their favourite with a click. Actually with two clicks, because the rules say that each participant can cast votes for the candidates once per 24 hours on The World Games website, and each time, votes must be given to two candidates. Two votes are awarded to the first-choice candidate and one vote to the second-choice candidate. You can vote separately for both the Athlete of the Year and the Team of the Year. The current ranking and the number of votes cast for each candidate will be shown on the IWGA voting page as the voting period progresses.

It is the ninth time that the IWGA has staged a vote for the Athletes of the Year. “It’s a kind of tradition, starting a new year celebrating the achievements of our outstanding athletes. This time we are once again rekindling memories of the outstanding Games in Birmingham, USA this summer with our voting. The best of TWG 2022 on the candidate list have a great chance to win another title. What makes it so valuable is that the fans themselves decide who will be Athlete and Team of the Year,” explains IWGA President José Perurena.

 The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the International World Games Association, organised with the support of the International Olympic Committee. The World Games 2022 was held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 7-17 July 2022. 3,600 athletes from 34 sports and 100 countries took part in the Games. The 12th edition of The World Games will be held in Chengdu, CHN in 2025.

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