Turin lands 2013 World Masters Games; is Porto Alegre toast?

 

In a 45-minute press conference last week, officials in Turin, Italy, bragged about bagging the 2013 World Masters Games — the next one after Sydney. Turin apparently beat out Berlin for the gig. I missed the Sept. 28 announcement, sorry. Napping, I guess. The Sydney site reports the basics.  Another good report is at Around the Rings, where organizers claim 50,000 athletes and fans will attend, and “the www.torino2013.org website will be going live during the Sydney World Masters Games.” For video of the press conference, click on “Guarda la conferenza stampa” at the bottom of this page. Now we’re faced with yet another masters muddle: Save your shekels for the 2013 WMA world meet in Porto Alegre, Brazil, or sip Vino da Tavola later the same month (August) in northern Italy. If Europeans favor Turin, the Brazil meet will be rendered meaningless. Oh well, they’ll always have Rio.

Italians land another biggie — six years after 2007 Riccione worlds.

Here’s basic info on the 2013 WMA world meet in Porto Alegre:

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October 5, 2009

13 Responses

  1. Weia Reinboud - October 5, 2009

    It’s a mess. Maybe we should skip the whole Masters Games or Senior Games or what have you. Just our area and world championships are enough.

  2. Jerry Smartt - October 5, 2009

    It’s Porto Alegre for me. I love Italy but 15 “heats” in the 5,000 at the WMG would be a bit much.^_^
    Jerry

  3. Tom Fahey - October 5, 2009

    I would enjoy competing in Brazil. However, there are visa problems for Americans. My friend has a meeting in Brazil in a few months and is having a difficult time getting a visa. Apparently, the Brazilians are making it difficult for Americans because we make it hard for Brazilians to get a visa to the USA. Americans must have a personal interview with an official from a Brazilian consulate, which take 2 months. You can get a visa through their approved agency, which charges $400.

  4. Anthony Treacher - October 5, 2009

    Good for the Brazilians! It’s time that foreign governments react in kind. I don’t think you Americans really appreciate the trouble we law-abiding foreigners have in entering (or even leaving) the USA. One good reason for seriously reconsidering any trip that may involve travel to USA (or via USA) such as Kamloops 2010 and Sacramento 2011 masters world championships, is the hassle we get – from applying for US visas (what are the latest rules now? new passport just to enter US?) to encountering US immigration officials. I was even taken aside and subject to a special body search on leaving Chicago for Sweden a few years back! (Oh well, that’s my US visa gone.)

  5. pino pilotto - October 5, 2009

    I also love Italy (I am Italian too) and I love Brazil too and I never was there and “Porto Alegre” sounds good for my Latin ears and I love athletics and Torino is a beautiful and marvelous city – and Lahti was/is poor in urbanism and architecture but in sports.
    But 2013 is far away – I will decide in spring 2013 if Torino or Porto Alegre or both. It’s too early for cephalalgia.
    But before, I will see if the USA let me enter to Sacramento in 2011.
    And maybe the next economical crisis will decide for me.

  6. pino pilotto - October 5, 2009

    ooops, I forget a “not”
    Lahti was not poor in sports

  7. Tommy Aunan - October 5, 2009

    With Porto Alegre, Brazil and Torino, Italia, two such prime destinations, and decide which to choose, we got a hot potato in our hands. Earlier today I was clear about going to Porto Alegre with a mandatory stopover in Rio (Rio is # 1 city in the world in my book, been there 3x), but with your discussions on the board, I think I will postpone my decision to see where most tracksters decide to go (in my case rayzwockrs)

  8. Anonymous - October 5, 2009

    Here’s another worm to throw into the mix in 2013: the NSGA (National Senior Games Association) will be holding their national games in Cleveland during the summer of this same year. Maybe a place for the impoverished to compete?

  9. peter taylor - October 6, 2009

    That’s quite a worm, Anonymous. I just got the latest issue of National Masters News — what a tremendous show they had at Stanford University for this year’s Sr Games. Our masters chair, Gary Snyder, said recently that we are in direct competition with the Sr Games — or maybe he said we’re in competition for the same athletes — guess that’s about the same.
    Based on Louisville (2007) and Palo Alto (2009), it looks like the game is over: the Sr Games won. Didn’t bring the paper (NMN) with me, but I can recall that the stars turned out in force.
    Let’s see: Phil Raschker (All World No. 1 is what I call her) was there, as was Nadine O’Connor (All World No. 2 is how I bill her). Bill Collins, one of the two greatest male masters sprinters in US history was there, as was Oscar Peyton. Kay Glynn was in the event, as was Hall of Famer Audrey Lary.
    Horace Grant was there, as was Roger Pierce. Kathy Jager was doing her thing, as was Tom Fahey (discus, see entry above). I could go on and on….what a show of stars. Even Rick Riddle was there, I believe. In all, even with a limited set of track and field events, Palo Alto had 3 times the turnout of Oshkosh. What’s more, my source tells me that at least 40 world or American records were broken at the meet, all to be thrown out apparently because of no USATF sanction.
    What can we conclude? Cleveland (2013 Sr Games) will be a huge success, while the 2013 masters outdoors — oops, I don’t think we have a site for 2013. The bad news for masters T&F is that in 2008-2009 we had, for the first time in many, many years, back-to-back poor turnouts for our outdoors. Spokane had only 977, as I recall, while Oshkosh had an estimated 1000 (of whom many scratched, but I am not counting that).
    How long has it been since masters T&F had back-to-back turnouts that were as bad as what we saw in 2008 and 2009? The answer: It was 1992 (Spokane) and 1993 (Provo, Utah). The U.S. population was far smaller than it is today, and masters T&F had a much lower profile (Thanks go here to the many masters athletes who have performed well at big venues such as Penn Relays, Drake Relays, open nationals, and Olympic Trials, and thanks also to Mark Cleary and Bob Weiner for the great job they have done. They have certainly helped to raise our profile).
    What’s the solution? I say we follow what George Mathews suggested long ago — in some way become part of the National Senior Games Association (NSGA). We need to go with the big dogs — the glowing reports I have read from Randy Sturgeon, Amanda Scotti, and Sabra Harvey have me convinced — the game is over. And talk about quality — don’t have my old post here, but as I recall there were 44 men in the 100 dash at the Senior Games, of whom an amazing 41 ran within 3 seconds of the world record (held by Bill Collins). As I recall, we had either 6 or 7 at Oshkosh (one sprinter was DQ’d).

  10. peter taylor - October 6, 2009

    I meant, of course, 44 men in the M55 100 at the Sr Games, not in the entire meet. Oshkosh had 6 or 7.
    PLT

  11. kirsten kachuk - December 15, 2009

    please keep me informed re: the games . kirsten. thankyou.

  12. kirsten kachuk - December 15, 2009

    please keep me informed re: the games . kirsten. thankyou.

  13. Linda - September 27, 2010

    I would like to know when the website addresses are going to work to look up information. thank you – Linda

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