"Top Sports - High Spirits" was the slogan of The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung, TPE. In their eighth edition and for the first time held in Asia, the games served again as the perfect showcase for the participating sports. It started before the Opening Ceremony.
Skydiving and some of the other sports were featured prominently during a six-week exhibition at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, SUI. By staging this exhibition prior to and during the games, the IWGA and the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee were not only able to promote the event, the athletes and the sports to the museum visitors, they signaled to the world that the games are embedded in the Olympic Movement.
French freeflying athletes Cathy Bouette, Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet were brought to Lausanne for a media event staged during the exhibition.
The weather luck of previous editions did not carry over to 2009 Kaohsiung. A tropical storm, maybe even a typhoon, affected the parachuting/skydiving events the most, cancelling out an entire day in the schedule. Technical problems with the air-to-ground transmission of the video signal in skydiving had the spectators lose out on much of the action. The members of the IWGA evaluation commission pointed these shortfalls out in their reports. Something that would have an impact on the future of air sports on the program of The World Games.
And there were plenty of others sports vying for the limelight during 2009 Kaohsiung.