(ATR) USA Masters Games chief executive officer Hill Carrow tells Around the Rings that hosting the multi-sport games on a yearly basis will help increase the event’s prominence.
On the latest edition of ATRadio, Carrow details why the USA Masters Games will now be an annual event as opposed to a biennial sports festival. Carrow says input from athletes was the driving force in the decision.
"Why wait two years, why don’t we do this every year?" was the primary question athletes asked following the inaugural USA Masters Games in Greensboro, North Carolina last year, according to Carrow.
"We also thought to ourselves that might be easier to continue the momentum of the games and that could be a big help if we just did it every single year," Carrow said. "That’s the direction we decided to take."
The now annual sports event heads to San Diego, California this year in June and July. The competition will be divided into two sections with athletes competing in five sports from June 22-25 and the remaining sports scheduled for July 13-16.
The break in the action came as a result of choosing San Diego as the host city in October 2016, causing little time for organizers to book the appropriate venues for consecutive days.
However, Carrow says this will be the only year where this is the case because the event is being held in San Diego once more in 2018. Carrow says holding the event in the same city in consecutive years may be the new tradition of the games that would allow them to "raise the bar".
"Our intent is to grow this event significantly in the years to come and San Diego is the next step in that," Carrow tells ATR. "That’s why we’re there two years, we thought it could be an opportunity to break in the local host committee and then they could take it to the next level the following year."
The USA Masters Games are for athletes who are 21 years of age or older who range from former Olympians to weekend warriors. While the competition isn’t as elite as the Olympics, Carrow says the two events have very similar values.
Listen below for the full conversation with Carrow:
Written by Kevin Nutley
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