18.10.2019.
7th CISM Military World Games in China opened
The 7th CISM World Military Games opened today in Wuhan, China. The Games were opened by President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, who, in a meeting with the CISM officials and national representatives of the participating countries, expressed the expectation that the power of sports would be a bridge of communication between different cultures and bring peoples together a single heart of peace.
Over the next 10 days, 9.308 military athletes from 109 member states of the International Military Sports Council - CISM will compete in 27 disciplines at a record number of 329 sporting events.
Serbia will be represented by 41 athletes in 10 disciplines, wrestling, taekwando, orienteering, judo, boxing, swimming, athletics, skydiving, archery and triathlon.
All of our competitors are well motivated to do their best, fighting to win medals for Serbia and the Serbian Armed Forces. The competition is hard, but the Serbian Armed Forces are always going for the victory.
Because of the large number of participants and the number of disciplines, the CISM World Military Games are also called the Military Olympic Games. This was confirmed by today’s gala opening ceremony with a record number of competitors in a defile at the host city’s Central Sports Center including an attractive ignition of the Olympic fire. The cultural and artistic program was truly a multimedia experience sending messages of peace around the world.
The flags of all participating countries were also ceremoniously raised at the Wuhan Olympic Village.
The International Council for Military Sports (CISM) was formed on 18 February 1948 in Nice (France) on the basis of the idea of establishing a peaceful and secure world and the mission of having members of the Armed Forces around the world fight and compete in sports instead of the combat arena. The organization’s philosophy and ideals are embedded in the official CISM slogan – “Friendship through Sports”. CISM currently includes military sports in 138 countries, and the Republic of Serbia was admitted as its 127th member at the 58th CISM General Assembly and Congress, on 15 May 2003, in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), with the aim of participating in the sustainable development of world peace and promoting cooperation among the militaries, trust and reconciliation in the region and the world through sport.
Since Serbia joined CISM in 2003, members of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces have participated in more than 150 CISM activities, with the most significant ones at the World Military Games in Catania (Italy, 2003), Hyderabad (India, 2007), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 2011) and Mungyang (South Korea, 2015).
