Add the 2020 Warrior Games to the list of military events being cancelled over COVID-19 concerns.
“As the lead planners for the 2020 Warrior Games, the Marine Corps announced the decision to cancel the Games, citing the paramount concerns for the health and well- being of the 300 U.S. military active-duty and veteran athletes, international military teams, and residents within the greater San Antonio area,” the Corps said in a press release Friday morning.
The games, originally scheduled to occur across multiple sporting venues in San Antonio, Texas, Sept. 20-28, “would have marked the 10th anniversary of the annual competition of wounded, ill and injured service member athletes in 12 adaptive sports. The Marine Corps was selected to host the 2020 Games on behalf of the DoD. International participants originally scheduled to attend included wounded, ill and injured athletes from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands,” the release stated.
The games were supposed to see active military service members and veterans with upper-body, lower-body, and spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, visual impairment, serious illnesses and post-traumatic stress go head-to-head. The list of sports includes, archery, cycling, time-trial cycling, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track, field, wheelchair basketball, indoor rowing, powerlifting, golf, and wheelchair rugby, according to the DoD Warrior Games webpage.
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The Warrior Games were established in 2010 as a way to enhance the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded warriors and to expose them to adaptive sports. Sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., the inaugural Warrior Games hosted approximately 200 wounded, ill and injured service members. During the following years, the Warrior Games expanded in size and scope.
Last year’s event was held in Tampa and hosted for the first time by U.S. Special Operations Command.
Howard Altman is an award-winning editor and reporter who was previously the military reporter for the Tampa Bay Times and before that the Tampa Tribune, where he covered USCENTCOM, USSOCOM and SOF writ large among many other topics.
