THE WORLD POLICE AND FIRE GAMES BEGIN

Planning began in 1983 for the first World Police and Fire Games, which were held in 1985 in San Jose, California. The aim of the World Police and Fire Games is to offer the same variety of sports, and same high caliber of venues, officials and athletic achievement as the California Games, but on a global scale.

Subsequent World Police and Fire Games have been held biennially in San Diego, California(1987); Vancouver, Canada (1989); Memphis, Tennessee (1991); Colorado Springs, Colorado (1993); Melbourne, Australia (1995); Calgary, Canada (1997); Stockholm, Sweden (1999); Indianapolis, Indiana (2001); Barcelona, Spain (2003); Quebec City, Canada (2005); Adelaide, South Australia (2007); British Columbia, Canada(2009); New York City, New York (2011); Belfast, North Ireland (2013); Fairfax County, Virginia (2015); and Los Angeles, California (2017); with upcoming Games in Chengdu, China (2019); Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2022); Winnipeg, Canada (2023) and Birmingham, Alabama (2025).

The size and scope of the World Games continues to grow. Attendance has steadily increased as have the number of countries involved.   While attendance averages about 9000, the 2011 WPFG in New York holds the current attendance record with over 16,000 athletes competing in 67 sports from almost 70 countries.   More than 10,000 competitors are expected to attend the Winnipeg, Canada Games in 2023.  With family and traveling companions, the number in overall attendance will top 25,000.

While the World Olympics are indisputably number one in the terms of competitors attending, the two sports’ programs administered by the CPAF are second and third in number of entrants.  In addition, our Games offer far more sporting disciplines than the Summer and Winter Olympics combined.