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Photo courtesy of Vincent Stadlbaur.
Anna Gay, a member of the University of Alabama water ski team, will be competing in the World Games events at Oak Mountain State Park.
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Photos courtesy of The World Games.
Water skiing competitions will be hosted at Oak Mountain State Park.
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Photos courtesy of The World Games.
Middle distance orienteering competitions will be hosted at Oak Mountain State Park.
Shelby County will be on center stage for several days in July as several events for The World Games 2022 take place at Oak Mountain State Park.
Oak Mountain State Park was first contacted about the possibility of The World Games hosting a few of the sport competitions in 2018, said Anna Jones, event coordinator for the park.
“It wasn’t until 2020 when we received word it was official, and excitement has continued to grow park-wide since then,” she said. “We are thrilled to have been chosen as a venue for such a prestigious competition. The World Games has not been held in the United States since its initial founding in 1981, so having Oak Mountain State Park chosen as a venue to host competitions is momentous for the Alabama State Parks system.”
To prepare for the games, many infrastructural improvements and facility renovations have been completed throughout the park, and Jones said they are excited to share these with park guests.
Road construction has been in the works for the past several months but is expected to be completed before the games begin. This includes the expansion, repaving, and added bike lanes to State Park Road along with the roundabout to replace the four-way stop at the south entrance to the park.
EVENTS
Oak Mountain State Park is hosting five days of competition, and only 2,000 tickets are available for each day.
The events include the canoe marathon, middle distance orienteering, water skiing and wakeboarding competitions.
While the lake will feature the water skiing, wakeboarding and canoe marathon events, the beach will be the site of the middle distance orienteering competition.
Jones said these are popular activities that are extremely fun to watch, and the athletes competing in these events are the best in the world. She expects these events to be well attended by spectators.
“If you are interested in attending any of the competitions hosted here at the park, be sure to purchase your tickets soon so that you don’t miss out,” Jones said.
► Canoe Marathon: In this event, the competitor races over a long-distance course on water that is not subject to prescribed standards. They have to take the water as it is found and be prepared to carry their kayak around an impassable obstacle or between two waterways. This event will take place July 11-12.
► Water ski: This event has three different categories: slalom, trick and jump.
In slalom, skiers use only one ski, with their feet facing forward, one in front of the other. Skiers must navigate around a six-buoy course in order to complete the pass. The skier who successfully passes around the most buoys on the shortest rope wins.
In trick, skiers use small, oval-shaped skis and are given two 20-second runs, during which they perform a series of pre-selected tricks. One pass is for hand tricks, and the other for toe tricks. The skier with the most points wins.
In jump, skiers use two long skis to ride over a jump ramp in an attempt to travel the longest distance. The winner is the skier who travels the farthest calculated distance and successfully rides away.
Anna Gay, a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, will compete in the trick event.
She began skiing when she was just 2 years old and started competing when she was 6.
Her parents are water skiers, and Gay said she grew up in the boat watching them.
“I spent pretty much my whole life watching them compete, and that started my love for the sport,” she said.
Gay competed on the University of Alabama’s water ski team and has one more year of eligibility remaining, which she will use next year when she attends graduate school to obtain her master’s degree in marketing.
She chose UA because she described it as one of the top three water ski colleges in the nation.
“I wanted to go somewhere that was a good ski school and also get a good education. Alabama fell to top of that list. We have one of the best facilities in the country,” she said.
The World Games chooses the top athletes in their sport in the country, and last year, Gay was ranked as the top female water skier in the United States. This won’t be her first World Games though. She competed at the last World Games in Poland when she was only 17.
Of the three water ski events, Gay will be competing in the trick competition, which is filled with flips, spins and body overs. She will get two 20-second passes to get in as many tricks as possible.
“The harder the trick, the more points you can score, but if you don't do it perfectly, you can score zero or have a risk of falling,” she said.
Gay has two potential routines and will decide which one after seeing what her competitors do.
“I have a run down that I've done multiple times in very high pressure competitions that I have ready to go,” she said. “I am looking at potentially doing something new and different. Depends on the day. If I can score the highest in the prelims, I can go last in the finals and get to see what every competitor does before me then choose. I can decide on the fly what I want to do.”
She said she is excited this year’s event will be in Shelby County and “close to home” for her. She will have her friends and family in attendance to cheer for her.
“My family is coming to watch; some of my teammates from UA [are coming], along with friends from across the country. It should be really fun, and I'm really excited.”
Wakeboard
This event has one category: freestyle. The sport is a mixture of water skiing, snowboarding, and surfing. Athletes use a small, mostly rectangular, thin board with very little displacement and shoe-like bindings attached. Jumps are performed by riding up the wake and launching into the air. While in the air, the rider attempts to do tricks. Water ski and wakeboard events will take place July 14-16.
Orienteering
The orienteering event combines racing with navigation. It is a timed race in which individual participants use a specially created, highly-detailed map to select routes and navigate through diverse and unfamiliar terrain to visit control points in sequence.
The World Games 2022 will include three disciplines: middle distance, sprint and sprint relay.
► Middle Distance: Often referred to as “Middle,” it is a shorter cross-country race than the classic. With a winning time in the region of 30 minutes, it places an emphasis more on fine navigation rather than route-choice navigation.
► Sprint: This event involves very short races, with winning times in the 12-15 range. They are held in city parks and other more urban settings with control sites that include benches, litterbins, sculptures and other objects common to urban parks. The 2022 Orienteering Sprint Finals will be at Birmingham-Southern College.
► Sprint Relay: A relay race run by a team of competitors. Each individual runs the course, and the result is based on the collective time of the team totaled together. This year’s event will take place at Railroad Park.
ALSO HAPPENING AT THE PARK
In conjunction with the games, Oak Mountain State park will host World Wildlife Wednesdays. The park’s interpretive staff members have prepared a new program series featuring live animals from across the globe. Guests can learn all about the critters of the world and their native habitats.
Events in May and June featured the Alabama 4-H Science School, the Alabama Wildlife Center, OMIC interpretive staff and Jinny Stiles. July 6 will feature the Anniston Museum of Natural History. The park, in partnership with the city of Pelham, will also host its annual fireworks show, Fire on the Water, on July 3.
