Thank You Akita! Arigato!

The World Games Opening Ceremony, directed by Akita native Tsutomu Konno, who had previously produced the ceremonies for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, set new standards in extending a warm welcome to the 4'054 athletes and officials from 93 countries participating in the sixth edition of this premier multi-sport event.

What followed were ten days of elite competitions in the 26 sports of the official sports program and in 5 invitational sports. In all, 170 events featured in The World Games 2001 Akita, 153 of those were medal events.

Sunday, August 19, the third day of The World Games and the first Sunday, saw competions being staged concurrently in 15 different sports.

Not even the passage of a typhoon, which affected nearly all of Japan and required the rescheduling of some of the water skiing and casting events by 24 hours, was able to detract the 2001 Akita organizers from accomplishing their mission.

In his farewell speech to athletes, officials, dignitaries and the public present at the Closing Ceremony on August 26, 2001, IWGA President Ron Froehlich labeled the World Games 2001 Akita 'the best ever'. Rightfully so!

Not only were there huge crowds (the final tally: 300,000) attending the many events at venues throughout the Akita prefecture, daily highlights programming on The World Games was aired in all of Japan on NHK, the country's national broadcaster, and on a number of networks and channels around the world.