2019 Military World Games

The **2019 Military World Games**, officially known as the **7th CISM Military World Games** and commonly known as **Wuhan 2019**, was held from October 18–27, 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China.

The 7th Military World Games was the first international military multi-sport event to be held in China and also it was the largest military sports event ever to be held in China, with nearly 10,000 athletes from over 100 countries competing in 27 sports. The multi-sport event included 25 official and 2 demonstrative sports. Six sport disciplines such as badminton, tennis, table tennis, women's boxing and men's gymnastics made their debuts in the event.

This was also the second biggest international sport event to be held in the year 2019 in China after hosting the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. The Games were organized by the Military Sports Commission of China, Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China and the military commands (Army in accordance with CISM regulations and the rules of the International Sports Federations. For the first time in the history of the Military World Games, an Olympic village was set up for the athletes prior to the commencement of the Games. The village was officially opened for the athletes following the flag-raising ceremony.

Host nation China sent a delegation consisting of 553 participants for the games, which marked the record number of participants to represent a nation at a single Military World Games. Around 230,000 volunteers were recruited for the event to be staged in China.

## Bidding

Following the conclusion of the 2015 Military World Games, China won the bid to host the Games for the first time in 2015.

## Venues

The event was held in 35 venues. Football stadium Wuhan Sports Center hosted the football competition for both men and women held from 16 to 27 October.

### Houhu block

#### Wuhan Five Rings Sports Center

 Gymnasium
 Natatorium

#### Others

 Mulan Lake Campus of PLA Naval University of Engineering | Naval Pentathlon (Lifesaving, Utility Swimming, Obstacle Race, Seamanship Race and Amphibious Cross-Country Race)
 Air Force Early Warning Academy Venues
 Wuhan National Fitness Center Football Field
 Hankou Culture and Sports Center
 Wuhan Gymnasium

### Zhuankou block

#### Wuhan Sports Center

 Gymnasium
 Natatorium

### Huangjiahu block

 Jiangxia District Orienteering Venues:BafenshanDahuashanQinglongshanTianzishan
 Wuhan City Polytechnic Gymnasium
 Athletes Village

## Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on 18 October 2019 and the event was officially opened by the Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping. An extravaganza titled "Torch of Peace" was performed during the opening ceremony highlighting the main motto of the event.

Prior to the opening ceremony, a light show was set to be staged in the Yangtze River in Wuhan. It featured a screen made up of millions of small LED lights installed on bridges and buildings along the bank of the Yangtze River. The torch relay for the event was held on 16 October 2019 with the participation of 100 torchbearers. Liao Hui, 2008 Olympic gold medalist in weightlifting began the torch rally while hammer thrower Zhang Wenxiu concluded the torch relay. Flag raising ceremony was also held on 16 October 2019.

## Mascot

The emblem and mascot along with the website were unveiled on 24 November 2017 by Ministry of National Defense of China.

## Marketing

An online store and 21 franchised retail stores were newly opened in order to promote the sales of licensed items.

## Sports

The competition involved 28 sports.

* Pentathlon
	+ Aeronautical pentathlon (details) (5)
	+ Military pentathlon (details) (6)
	+ Modern pentathlon (details) (5)
	+ Naval pentathlon (details) (6)
* Army Sports
	+ Orienteering (details) (8)
	+ Parachuting (details) (18)
	+ Sailing (details) (2)
* Aquatics
	+ Diving (details) (12)
	+ Open water swimming (details) (5)
	+ Swimming (details) (42)
	+ Lifesaving (details) (18)
* Main Sports
* Athletics (details) (Athletics and Para Athletics) (45)+(29)
* Cycling (details) (Road Cycling) (6)
* Shooting (details) (25)
* Martial Arts
	+ Boxing (details) (15)
	+ Fencing (details) (12)
	+ Judo (details) (16)
	+ Taekwondo (details) (16)
	+ Wrestling (details) (18)
* Team Sports
	+ Basketball (details) (2)
	+ Football (details) (2)
	+ Volleyball (details) (Indoor and Beach Volleyball) (4)
* Other Sports
	+ Archery (details) (Archery and Para Archery) (5)+(3)
	+ Badminton (details) (6)
	+ Equestrian (details) (2)
	+ Golf (details) (4)
	+ Table tennis (details) (6)
	+ Triathlon (details) (Triathlon and Senior triathlon) (5)+(3)

Demonstration sports

* Tennis (details) (5)
* Gymnastics
	+ Artistic gymnastics (details) (8)

## Records

On 20 October 2019, China's Lu Pinpin broke the world record in the women's 500m obstacle swimming course classified under the military pentathlon with a record timing of 2 minutes and 10.9 seconds.

Overall, 82 records were broken during the nine day multi-sport event.

## Controversies

In orienteering China's teams originally captured a gold and a silver medal in women as well as a silver in men, but were all disqualified by the International Orienteering Federation after it was found out that they had been given access to secretly marked paths and received external assistance thus gaining major unfair advantage over other competitors. A common protest was also held by the competitors from Russia, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Poland and Austria accusing the Chinese team for gaining major unfair advantage in the competition.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories about COVID-19 attributing the virus' creation to the CIA emerged. Some articles on popular sites in Chinese have accused American athletes participating in the Wuhan Military World Games to have deployed the virus. They claim the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below average results of American athletes in the game indicate they might have been in for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives, and that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred. Returning French athletes reported that a large number of athletes from different delegations had fallen ill with unusual symptoms during the games which some attribute to COVID-19.

## Participating nations

It was reported that 109 nations took part in the event including athletes from Russia. In September 2019, the International Association of Athletics Federation approved athletes from Russia with the Authorized National Athlete (ANA) status to take part at the event. However the All Russia Athletics Federation remained silent on the participation of Russian athletes.

### List of participating nations

9,308 athletes from 110 countries participated in the games:

* Algeria (56)
* Albania (5)
* Angola (2)
* Armenia (15)
* Argentina (2)
* Azerbaijan (20)
* Austria (37)
* Brazil (329)
* Bahrain (69)
* Barbados (2)
* Belarus (95)
* Bosnia and Herzegovina (11)
* Belgium (51)
* Botswana (15)
* Bulgaria (21)
* Burkina Faso (3)
* Canada (104)
* Cameroon (55)
* Republic of the Congo (19)
* Cape Verde (4)
* Chile (32)
* Colombia (31)
* China (553)
* Croatia (11)
* Cyprus (8)
* Czech Republic (27)
* Chad (11)
* Democratic Republic of the Congo (26)
* Denmark (61)
* Djibouti (3)
* Dominican Republic (31)
* Ecuador (74)
* Egypt (83)
* Eritrea (3)
* Estonia (27)
* Swaziland (2)
* Finland (53)
* France (273)
* Germany (243)
* Gabon (9)
* Gambia (3)
* Greece (46)
* Guinea (14)
* Guyana (4)
* Hungary (56)
* India (54)
* Iran (90)
* Indonesia (46)
* Ireland (32)
* Italy (139)
* Jordan (5)
* Kazakhstan (62)
* Kenya (14)
* Kuwait (35)
* Lesotho (3)
* Latvia (32)
* Lebanon (7)
* Lithuania (56)
* Luxembourg (17)
* Morocco (24)
* Monaco (2)
* Mongolia (75)
* Montenegro (2)
* Mozambique (3)
* Myanmar (44)
* Macedonia (4)
* Namibia (3)
* Netherlands (89)
* Nepal (40)
* Niger (3)
* Nigeria (12)
* North Korea (156)
* Norway (28)
* Oman (63)
* Pakistan (19)
* Palestinian Territory (9)
* Peru (15)
* Poland (193)
* Portugal (9)
* Qatar (99)
* Romania (77)
* Russia (243)
* Rwanda (41)
* Saudi Arabia (41)
* Senegal (3)
* Serbia (41)
* Slovakia (14)
* Slovenia (32)
* Korea (172)
* Spain (111)
* Sri Lanka (73)
* Sweden (72)
* Switzerland (67)
* Syria (15)
* Tanzania (22)
* Thailand (55)
* Togo (3)
* Tunisia (17)
* Turkmenistan (4)
* Turkey (20)
* United Arab Emirates (27)
* United States (172)
* Uganda (5)
* Uzbekistan (50)
* Ukraine (87)
* Uruguay (27)
* Venezuela (84)
* Vietnam (32)
* Zambia (13)
* Zimbabwe (28)

## Medal table

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Source:

Note: Para Athletics, Para Archery, Gymnastics, Tennis and 3 Senior Triathlon events not counted in medal table.

1. ↑ The United States won a gold medal in the women's senior division triathlon and a silver medal in the mixed senior team. Since the two triathlon medals were awarded in the over 40 division, they were not counted in the official medal tally.

## Results

* https://results.wuhan2019mwg.cn/file/RESULTS-7th%20CISM%20Military%20World%20Games-%E6%80%BB%E6%88%90%E7%BB%A9%E5%86%8C.pdf
* https://results.wuhan2019mwg.cn/index.htm#/totalmedal
* https://web.archive.org/web/20191112134942/https://results.wuhan2019mwg.cn/file/RESULTS-7th%20CISM%20Military%20World%20Games-%E6%80%BB%E6%88%90%E7%BB%A9%E5%86%8C.pdf
* https://web.archive.org/web/20191112135029/https://results.wuhan2019mwg.cn/index.htm#/index
* https://web.archive.org/web/20191112135047/http://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://results.wuhan2019mwg.cn/index.htm
* Results book (Track & Field)
* Results book (Marathon)
* Swimming Results book
* Orienteering Results book
* Fencing Results book