World Games close to home for a handful of athletes – AL.com
About 3,600 athletes from more than 100 countries will compete in World Games 2022 in Birmingham over the following 10 days. At least a handful of those athletes will feel less like visitors and more like the home team.
The World Games has identified five competitors with ties to Alabama, including two from the Alabama softball program – former star Haylie McCleney and current star Montana Fouts – playing for the U.S. team.
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Waterski-trick competitor Anna Gay graduated from the University of Alabama in the Class of 2022, sumo wrestler Andrew Roden is a Guntersville resident and Raio Campos is a Columbiana business owner set for jiu-jitsu.
“The World Games 2022 will add to Alabama’s rich athletic history, and it’s certainly exciting to have local athletes qualified and set to compete,” World Games 2022 CEO Nick Sellers said in a press release. “Not only is this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the athletes to compete on home soil, but spectators also have the unique chance to see a fellow Alabamian compete at home, too.”
McCleney is an outfielder and Fouts a pitcher for 14-player U.S. softball squad entered in the eight-team tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Last year, McCleney won a silver medal with the U.S. team at the Tokyo Olympics. McCleney led Mortimer Jordan High School in Kimberly to three state championships as an All-State player before becoming a three-time first-team All-American at Alabama and a two-time world champion with the national team.
A fifth season with the Crimson Tide lies ahead for Fouts after she posted a 24-8 record with a 2.10 earned-run average and 275 strikeouts in 190 innings for Alabama in 2022. In 2021, Fouts won the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s Pitcher of the Year Award.
The No. 1 seed for the softball tournament, the United States will open against No. 7 Italy at 7 p.m. CDT Saturday. The U.S. team plays No. 6 Chinese Taipei at 7 p.m. Sunday and No. 3 Canada at 7 p.m. Monday to complete Group 1 play.
Group 2 includes No. 2 Japan, No. 4 Mexico, No. 5 Puerto Rico and No. 8 Australia.
The top two finishers in each group advance to the medal round on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the gold-medal game set for 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Gay already has World Games experience, having competed in the previous gathering in Wroclaw, Poland, in 2017. A nine-time gold medalist at the Water Ski World Championships, she’s also a two-time National Collegiate Water Ski Association trick champion.
The waterski and wakeboard competition, including slalom, jump and freestyle in addition to trick, will be held on July 14-15 on the lake at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham.
A former college wrestler at New Mexico Highlands, Roden has taken rapidly to sumo. He’ll compete in the men’s middleweight class, which has a 254-pound weight limit. Competition also will be held in the lightweight and heavyweight divisions. The women’s competition also features three weight classes.
The sumo matches will be held at Boutwell Memorial Auditorium in Birmingham, with two sessions set for Saturday – 12:40 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. – and the medal competition starting at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
An Alabama National Guardsman, Campos owns Ground Strike Grappling in Columbiana. He’ll compete in the jiu-jitsu ne-waza men’s 85-kilogram (187-pound) weight class. Ne-waza is a jiu-jitsu discipline concentrated on ground-fighting with competitors seeking to win by submission.
The jiu-jitsu competition will be held in Bill Battle Coliseum at Birmingham-Southern College on July 15-16, with two sessions each day – 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. July 15 and 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. July 16.
World Games 2022 will kick off Thursday night with the opening ceremonies at Protective Stadium in Birmingham.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.