Discussion: Orienteering at the World Police & Fire Games
in: Orienteering; General
Apr 27, 2017 6:15 PM
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Last night at the pub, I happened to run into a local firefighter who competes in the orienteering competitions at the World Police & Fire Games.
I was sorta aware that this was a thing, since there was event discussion about the 2011 games in New York. The 2015 games were in Virginia and QOC organized.
Anyway, this guy lamented that there was no orienteering scheduled for the 2017 games, to be held in August in Los Angeles. It's been at every WPFG games since 1999.
So this makes me wonder about how the games are organized and how the local orienteering clubs get involved. There's a club in Los Angeles, obviously. Did the WPFG organizers decide to boot orienteering? Did they approach LAOC and they decline? Anyone know how this works?
I was sorta aware that this was a thing, since there was event discussion about the 2011 games in New York. The 2015 games were in Virginia and QOC organized.
Anyway, this guy lamented that there was no orienteering scheduled for the 2017 games, to be held in August in Los Angeles. It's been at every WPFG games since 1999.
So this makes me wonder about how the games are organized and how the local orienteering clubs get involved. There's a club in Los Angeles, obviously. Did the WPFG organizers decide to boot orienteering? Did they approach LAOC and they decline? Anyone know how this works?
Apr 28, 2017 3:48 AM
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It's probably way too late to add a sport for the 2017 games. Anyone know where they will be in 2019? I was an event commissioner for orienteering at 2001 WPFG and would be happy to help / advise any local O club. No idea why it was dropped; my assumption is that the organizing committee didn't know where to turn for help setting up the events.
Apr 28, 2017 3:18 PM
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barb:
Mike, thanks for offering to help. Could you make sure this doesn't get dropped, maybe reach out to the WPFG organization, or kick it back to someone at OUSA if you can't take it on?
Apr 28, 2017 4:30 PM
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Anyone know where they will be in 2019?
Chengdu, China
Some history.... the 2017 games were supposed to be held in Montreal, but in March 2016, they backed out because several unions said they were going to boycott the event. In early November 2016, they announced that the events would take place in Los Angeles.
Per the official Facebook page, orienteering was on the proposed list of sports from November 23, 2016 (it looks like some other previous sports didn't even make that list, per some of the comments). That post has a lot of comments, including one from January 20, 2017 that asked about orienteering, which received this response:
"Unfortunately, with the short turn around amount of time to pull the World Police & Fire Games together in Los Angeles next August, we had to make some difficult decisions regarding which sports we could not host due to limited time, resources, and personnel.
As of today, Orienteering, will not be offered in Los Angeles. We will make sure that Chengdu (the world host in 2019) knows the interest for Orienteering to return to the Sports Line-up in 2019.
Looks like they decided to nix orienteering between late November and January. I'm curious if LAOC was even asked.
What I don't know is what the usual protocol is. Since WPFG is an international event, does someone at the IOF have a reminder set every two years to see where the next is, and say "Hey, WPFG, we noticed that your next event is in [insert host country here]. Do you want us to put you in contact with the national/local orienteering scene?" Or does WPFG usually reach out to whatever national/local entity there is? Or is it up to the national O' federations to see if WPFG is coming to their country in the near future?
Chengdu, China
Some history.... the 2017 games were supposed to be held in Montreal, but in March 2016, they backed out because several unions said they were going to boycott the event. In early November 2016, they announced that the events would take place in Los Angeles.
Per the official Facebook page, orienteering was on the proposed list of sports from November 23, 2016 (it looks like some other previous sports didn't even make that list, per some of the comments). That post has a lot of comments, including one from January 20, 2017 that asked about orienteering, which received this response:
"Unfortunately, with the short turn around amount of time to pull the World Police & Fire Games together in Los Angeles next August, we had to make some difficult decisions regarding which sports we could not host due to limited time, resources, and personnel.
As of today, Orienteering, will not be offered in Los Angeles. We will make sure that Chengdu (the world host in 2019) knows the interest for Orienteering to return to the Sports Line-up in 2019.
Looks like they decided to nix orienteering between late November and January. I'm curious if LAOC was even asked.
What I don't know is what the usual protocol is. Since WPFG is an international event, does someone at the IOF have a reminder set every two years to see where the next is, and say "Hey, WPFG, we noticed that your next event is in [insert host country here]. Do you want us to put you in contact with the national/local orienteering scene?" Or does WPFG usually reach out to whatever national/local entity there is? Or is it up to the national O' federations to see if WPFG is coming to their country in the near future?
Apr 28, 2017 5:51 PM
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Orienteering Quebec was in contact with the organizers for the Montreal Games.
Orienteering was included in the 2005 Games in Quebec City and the organizers paid for a map to be made. No further comments.
Orienteering was included in the 2005 Games in Quebec City and the organizers paid for a map to be made. No further comments.
This discussion thread is closed.