In October 2019, the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games will take place in San Diego. The World Beach Games is a multi-sports event organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees. “The ANOC World Beach Games is an exciting opportunity to get beach sports featured on a global state,” said Vincent E. Mudd, who is the board chairman at ANOC World Beach Games and the founder of San Diego Exploratory Foundation (SDEF).
The ANOC World Beach Games will blend the beach, active lifestyles and urban living into a vibrant mix that inspires youthful creativity and celebrates global connectivity through sports.
The event will feature 15 sports with 17 disciplines. It will be a mixture of sports traditionally played on sand, like beach volleyball and beach football, and others that take place in the water, such as dragon boat racing, yacht racing, wakeboarding, and surfing. There will also be skateboarding and sport climbing.
The World Beach Games is primarily going to take place in Mission Beach and mostly in South Mission Beach. San Diego has been chosen to host the event because it is at the epicenter of beach, surf and extreme sports culture.
“San Diego has the most authentic beach culture to host these games and is a worldwide tourist destination that the entire world knows and wants to visit,” Mudd said. Mudd says the event will help improve the Mission Beach community in many different ways, including increased future tourism. ANOC represents 206 national Olympic committees and each committee is able to sent athletes to the games, but the athlete have to be qualified by the International Sports Federation, and they have to be the top athletes in those sports. The nonprofit organization SDEF is spearheading the fundraising and organizing efforts for the World Beach Games. SDEF is led by a group of civic and community leaders, committed to transforming the San Diego Mega-Region into the most competitive global center for innovative sports and active lifestyle culture.
It is the intention that future ANOC World Beach Games will be held every second year in between the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games.
