A great initiative. With just over a hundred days to go before the event, the American organisers of the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama (7 to 17 July), have decided to allocate part of the ticketing revenue to a fund to help Ukraine. The decision was made this week at a meeting between the International World Games Association (IWGA), chaired by Spain’s José Perurena, and the Birmingham 2022 organising committee. “For each ticket a person buys, a percentage (still to be defined) will be used to help athletes and rebuild sports facilities damaged by bombing” in Ukraine, José Perurena told the AroundtheRings website. The money collected will be handed over before the end of the World Games by the Mayor of Birmingham, Randall Woodfin, to a Ukrainian representative who could be Sergey Bubka, the former pole vaulter and president of the National Olympic Committee. In parallel, the IWGA and the local organisers are considering offering Ukrainian athletes the opportunity to come to Alabama several weeks before the start of the multi-sport event to prepare for the competition in the best possible conditions. The financing of their final training camp could be ensured thanks to the marketing revenues of the 2022 World Games. Around 100 Ukrainian athletes are expected to come to Birmingham to compete.
