The seventh edition of the World Military Games will be held in Wuhan (CHINA), from the 18 to the 27 October 2019, a four-year event organized by the International Council of Military Sports (CISM) and involving 10.000 athletes from over 110 nations , which will be compared in 28 sports disciplines.
Italy will participate in the event with a delegation of approximately 200 including athletes, technical staff and accompanying managers, among the best defense and Guardia di Finanza military athletes, who will compete in 19 of the 28 disciplines included in the sports program, among which stand out athletics, fencing, archery, swimming, military pentathlon, parachuting.
In addition to the presence of numerous athletes of Olympic, world and European level, many of whom have already participated and won at the previous editions of the World Military Games, Italy will also guarantee an adequate and competitive presence of the athletes of the Paralympic Defense Sports Group (GSPD), engaged in athletics and archery.
Last 10 October, the President of the Republic presented the flag to the Italian delegation's flagship, Sergeant Major Paolo Pizzo.
MORE
The Military World Games
The idea of organizing this event was born in the 1993 during the Symposium, held by the Fiamme Gialle in Ostia, in which the senior management of the CISM and the representatives of almost all the participating nations took part. The project, also thanks to the constant support of the CONI and to the attention of the General Staff of the Defense, took shape therefore, two years later, when the first edition took place in Rome. Seeing the military athletes of dozens of nations at the Olympic stadium, each in their own colorful uniform, was a unique and hardly comparable emotion for the public, very numerous and enthusiastic. Strengthened by the enormous success of the event, the CISM was encouraged to move forward, assigning the organization of the second edition to Zagreb. In August 1999 military athletes started the demonstration in an area ravaged by a conflict whose last echoes had not yet been extinguished, practically in conjunction with the beginning of the humanitarian peace support mission. The strong and tangible message of solidarity and hope launched in that circumstance through sport was widely appreciated, renewing and, if possible, increasing the consensus obtained by the Roman edition.
From the 2010, again every four years, the CISM also organizes the winter editions of the Military World Games in a similar way to what happens for the Winter Olympic Games. Also in this case, Italy, which hosts the first edition of the games in Aosta, plays a role of primary importance.
The CISM
Founded on February 18 1948, the International Military Sports Council (CISM) is one of the largest multisport sports organizations in the world. With its current 140 member countries, it brings together on the playing fields all those Armed Forces that have often faced each other on adverse political and ideological grounds. From this derives, as envisaged by its philosophy and the ideals contained in the membership charter signed by all its member countries in the 1998, the contribution of the CISM to the building of world peace. Sport and solidarity are the two pillars of the organization on which are based the numerous global and regional activities that occupy around 300 days of the year under the aegis of the motto "Friendship through Sport".
The CISM has now become a privileged interlocutor of the international sports world. He is an essential carrier for the development of the practice of physical education for global youth and sport for all. The CISM has started a close collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as with all the federations and sports institutions worldwide. The President of the CISM is a member of the International Foundation for the Olympic Truce, established by the IOC. A true pioneer of international sports solidarity, the CISM is implementing projects in collaboration with the IOC and institutions such as the United Nations or the European Community.