Registration is now open for the majority of sports in the Summer Iowa Games, which will be held in the Ames area and at Iowa State University in late July and early August.

Cory Kennedy, a spokesman for the games, says the pandemic has forced a few changes, but organizers are thrilled to be moving forward with this year’s events.
“We are pretty much offering everything,” Kennedy says. “We’ve had to cancel some events due to COVID-19 concerns, whether it’s sports where you’re in close proximity for a longer period of time or some sports that we run in conjunction with their national governing bodies.”

While the 2020 edition of the Summer Iowa Games was abbreviated due to COVID, this year’s version will see competition in more than 50 sports. “Some of our popular sports for teams are soccer, baseball, softball are a couple of the larger team sports,” Kennedy says. “Individual sports, track and field is a large sport for us, archery is an up-and-coming, growing sport, and another large sport that is continually growing is pickleball.”

The main weekend of the games is scheduled for July 29th through August 1st, with 27 sports and competitions. Some events will start on July 10th, while others will begin in just a few weeks.

“We’ll host a high school trap-shooting event next month, in May,” he says, “as well as our annual Big Fish Classic fishing tournament.” Billed as Iowa’s premier multi-sports festival,

Kennedy says the event will attract thousands of participants from across the state.
“The cool thing about the Iowa Games is that it is definitely an event for all athletes, anybody, all ages, all abilities,” Kennedy says. “We have something from A to Z, archery to zumba.”

The Opening Ceremony will be held virtually this year on July 30th. Learn more and register at www.iowagames.org.