Exclusive - SportAccord to Launch World Urban Games

(ATR) SportAccord director general Vincent Gaillard tells Around the Rings that the organization plans to stage the first World Urban Games in 2015.

"We have made a commitment to work out at concept and we’re in the process of developing that," Gaillard told ATR.

"It’s about skills, about urban sports that are practiced or developed in the streets. We really want to combine them with grassroots sports and the community."

SportAccord will announce an event delivery partner in the next few weeks, he said.

Skateboarding and 3x3 basketball are among a raft of potential sports events under consideration.

Cycling Trials, billed by the International Cycling Union as one of its "most exciting and spectacular" disciplines, is also a possibility. The objective of Trials is to get over obstacles grouped into sections, sometimes using features found in an urban environment, with only the wheels touching the ground.

"There is a long range of potential sports," Gaillard said.

In the months ahead, SportAccord’s multisports events department will seek to formalize the Games concept and the sports program.

A host city must also be found which is willing to stage the event in a little over two years.

Asked why SportAccord was developing the World Urban Games as its latest multisports project, Gaillard said: "There is a growing needfrom many of our federations to reach out to new audiences with a different demographic.

"An urban games is a very suitable concept for new and upcoming disciplines."

He added: "There’s also a growing need on the side of the host city to regenerate some urban areas to make them more lively, to bring in entertainment and events.

"This is also a response to that… a sports event that is flexible and agile and doesn’t require a lot of infrastructure."

The aim would be to limit expenditure for the host city "and link the Games to the community, schools and under-privileged areas… to look at the social legacy and give it a true meaning," he added.

The World Urban Games is the latest of SportAccord’s growing roster of multi-sport events.

The Combat Games and World Mind Games are now established annual competitions.

This year’s Combat Games in St Petersburg in October is the biggest yet with the addition of fencing and wushu expanding the program to 15 sports.

Gaillard said the concepts and sports programs of the Beach Games, earmarked for Brazil, and Artistic Games that is destined for a Central American country would soon be finalized.

Reported by Mark Bisson.

Homepage photo from Getty Images.

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