The city of Lake Macquarie / Australia, was the first ever to host International Children's Games in the Southern Hemisphere. Whilst for most of the teams from 80 cities and 30 countries winter had already begun back home, summer had just started "down under".

On Monday, 27th of October 2014, the Host-City Agreement for the next International Children's Winter Games has been officially signed in the city of Innsbruck's town hall. Innsbruck, the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol / Austria, will host around 850 young athletes aged 12 to 15 years in January 2016. More than 80 cities are invited to participate in the 7th edition of ICG Winter Games.

Tyrolian Vice Governor, Mr. Josef Geisler, and Innsbruck's Mayor, Ms. Christine Oppitz-Plörer (both in the picture above with ICG President Torsten Rasch) expressed their joy over the awarding of the International Children's Winter Games to Innsbruck as this event will underline once more Innsbruck's importance as an international sport's city.

ICG President Torsten Rasch in his statement during the signing ceremony reconfirmed that Innsbruck is known worldwide for its excellent winter sports facilities and winter sports events.

Innsbruck has been a participant city, sending delegations to International Children’s Games for ten years«, Torsten Rasch said, »and I am very happy that it will now also become a Host City for the world’s biggest student’s sports event recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

»International Children’s Games are not so much about 'winning' or 'losing' but about promoting the ideas of Fair Play, international friendship and intercultural learning, and for sure about having fun competing in olympic sports.«

Yannick Lebherz from Darmstadt, Germany, ICG winner in Taipei and Cleveland, won a gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Marco Koch, also from Darmstadt, Germany, and ICG winner in Coventry Games, won a gold medal in 200m breaststroke with a new German and Championship Record of 2:07,47 minutes.

And also Rūta Meilutytė from Kaunas, Lithuania, coming directly from The Second Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China (16 to 28 August 2014), where she finished with two gold medals in 50m and 100m breaststroke was successful again in the 50m breaststroke final in Berlin, winning a gold medal with a time of 29,89 seconds.

Rūta Meilutytė has now completed the Aquatic Grand Slam, which requires to win gold medal in swimming events at Olympic Games, Youth Olympic Games, FINA World Senior (long-course and short-course) and Junior Championships, Swimming World Cup, European Youth and Senior Championships.

During the 4th annual Technical Commission Meeting in Ufa, Russia from August 14-20, 2014, ICG Vice President Igor Topole, Secretary General Richard Smith and Technical Commission Chairman Zlatko Kauran, had the honor of meeting the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, Mr. Rustem Khamitov.

The purpose of the meeting was to bring a letter from ICG President Torsten Rasch stating his approval of the offer from Ufa, Russia to host Summer Games in 2019.

President Khaminov stated that this would be positively discussed in the very near future and the ICG would receive an answer very soon. Also attending the meeting were Irek I. Yalalov, Mayor of the City of Ufa and the Minister of Sports for the Republic of Bashkortostan, Andre Ivanyuta.

The meeting ended after 30 min. with very friendly "do svidaniya" as seen in the picture.

The Committe of the International Children's Games is proud to announce that ICG has been awarded a Willi Daume World Fair Play Trophy in the category Promotion of Fair Play.

The price was specifically awarded

for the exemplary achievement in the worl of sport and on the field of promoting fair play during the Summer Children Games 2013 in Windsor, Canada

Ratchanok Intanon, 19 years old, a Badmintonplayer from Bangkok/Thailand, is the current womens' singles World Champion in Badminton.

In Reykjavik (ICG 2007) she already won 2 gold medals and now she is the youngest World Champion ever in Badminton!

She won the World Championship in 2013 in Guangzhou. Before she won 3 World Junior Championships, another first time ever record in Badminton.

This year Ratchanok Intanon was awarded "Best Asian Sporting Icon".

Dear sport friends,

we are sending you greetings from Europe, Slovenia, the city of Celje where the first ICG games began in 1968.

We are very proud and happy to be chosen for the presentation of our beautiful town at the ICG games in Australia.

We train hard every day thinking about the next winter in Europe when we are flying to your place where we are going to have a friendly game with you.

Best regards from Slovenia,

 


Lara, Miha, Filip, Amadej and Franc (the coach)

Former 800m winner from the ICG 2011 in Lanarkshire, Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdottir claimed the European Athletics Rising Star Awards.

The 17-year-old Hinriksdottir, was a winner at both the European Athletics Junior Championships and the IAAF World Youth Championships, where she set a championship record.

More than 16.000 fans voted on the European Athlete of the Year and Rising Star Awards at www.facebook.com/EuropeanAthletics, while 163 members of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS) from 54 countries also voted through www.aipsmedia.com.

The winning athletes were decided by counting votes from the fans, media, European Athletics Member Federations as well as an expert European Athletics panel, with the results from each group of voters counting for one quarter of the athlete's final score.

Women's 2013 Rising Star Top 3

1. Anita Hinriksdottir (ISL)
2. Dafne Schippers (NED)
3. Amela Terzic (SRB)

Alkmaar, Netherlands will host the 2015 International Children's Summer Games.

Sports offered will be: Athletics, Swimming, Judo, Golf, Soccer, Tennis, Gymnastics, and Volleyball.

Please visit International Children's Games Alkmaar website

Innsbruck, Austria will host the 2016 International Children's Winter Games.

Find out more at: ICG Innsbruck 2016

Windsor Essex celebrated wonderful and excellent International Children's Games for more than 1.800 participants from more than 80 cities around the world!

The Opening Cermony was "Olympic Standard" and the whole organisation with more than 1.200 volunteers with passion and a great heart for the athletes contributed to this marvellous turn out.The athletes offered great sport supported by a huge crowd of spectators in all venues.