The 20th annual Winter Iowa Games open this weekend with a dozen sports and several thousand athletes. Games spokesman Cory Kennedy says events will be getting underway in nine cities statewide on Saturday with a host of competitions over four weekends through late February.
“The Winter Iowa Games has your typical winter sports, like downhill skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing and then we have some indoor sports that you might not think would be played in the winter, like soccer,” Kennedy says.
There’s also basketball, volleyball, wrestling, hockey, trapshooting and more. He says there are 3,200 athletes registered for the games and with walk-up registration in several events, they anticipate having more than 4,000 athletes compete for the third year in a row.
“This year, my youngest preregistered athlete is four-years-old and the oldest is 91,” Kennedy says. “He’s an old guy that pitches horseshoes in the tournament. He’s great. He comes to the Winter Games and the Summer Iowa Games and he gets out there and competes.”
Registration for some events is already closed but Iowans who are interested in competing this weekend may still be able to take part, just by walking up. “There are a few sports you can go the day of and register on site and those include Alpine ski racing, cross-country skiing, the fitness walk, 5-K road race, snowboarding and wrestling,” Kennedy says.
Log on to:www.iowagames.org, and see where you need to be and when. Communities hosting events include: Eldora, Ackley, DeWitt, Harlan, Montrose, Story City, Cedar Rapids, Johnston and Des Moines.