Exactly one year from today, the 2023 IBSA World Games will kick-off in the English city of Birmingham. From August 18th to August 27th, over 1250 athletes from all over the world will compete in 11 different sports in the largest high-level international event for blind and partially sighted athletes.

For Blind Football (B1) it is nothing less than the World Championship (men), but Goalball and Judo (both for men and women) will provide showtime in competition, considering that the event will also act as a qualifying tournament for Paris 2024. Showdown, Powerlifting, Tenpin Bowling, Chess, and B2/B3 Football will have their place in the tournament too.

Sandro di Girolamo, IBSA’s President of the Executive Board praised the competition that will gather blind sport athletes from all over the world: “Today marks the definitive countdown for the most important sports event under IBSA governance. Our work towards all the visually impaired athletes reaches its highest peak in our World Games, which in 2023 will have Birmingham as the centre of the planet’s attention. The IBSA family will have this one-of-a-kind opportunity to compete together in the same event, ensuring a memorable edition almost a year before the Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024. The next year will be challenging for everybody involved in the organization, but I am certain of its great success. Not only from a sporting standpoint, but also from a social, cultural, and psychological one, in a way that only sport can provide for mankind.”

Sallie Barker, Chair of British Blind Sport, said: “With just 365 days to go until the Games begin, British Blind Sport and the 2023 IBSA World Games organising committee have been working hard to ensure that the Games leave a lasting legacy. With world-class facilities in Birmingham and Wolverhampton, brilliant partners and passionate crowds, we look forward to giving the athletes and spectators a World Games to remember.”

Staged every four years, the IBSA World Games are the pinnacle of the international calendar outside of the Paralympic Games. With three Paralympic and eight non-Paralympic sports, for some athletes, it is the highest level they can compete at.