Supporting Champions!

The 6^th Virtus Global Games closed last week in Vichy-France, following a week of exceptional competition and sportsmanship.

These Games were the biggest in Virtus’ history, with the largest number of athletes contending the biggest ever medal-event programme. After the opening ceremony attended by President of the International Paralympic Committee Andrew Parsons in the exquisite Vichy Opera, competition began with early medals up for grabs in the swimming pool. Traditional Global Games sports including Basketball, Futsal, Athletics, and Tennis soon followed and there were Games debuts for Karate and Judo, whilst Handball appeared for the first time as a demonstration sport.

Nations including Kazakhstan enjoyed a phenomenal debut at the Games, with Dastan Ordabay winning four silver medals in Track-cycling. With around 45 nations in total, this was a truly Global event bringing together the world’s best athletes with an intellectual impairment.

The Table Tennis competition had a particular excitement this year as it had been chosen as a direct qualifier to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. After intense competition, Acer Ebru created history by becoming the first ever athlete with an Intellectual Impairment who will represent Turkey in Paris next year whilst in the men’s competition it was seventeen year old Chen-Po Yen who took the Paris slot.

The 6th edition represented the next part of the Virtus Global Games story. In the coming weeks we will know who will write the 7^th, as the hosts of the 2027 event are due to be announced soon.

For more stories from the Games, videos and photos, please visit the Virtus website or Games website and thankyou for your continual support for everything we do.