The World Police and Fire Games (WPFG) is an annual sports event accessible to retired and active firefighters and law enforcement personnel from all over the world. WPFG is a part of the WPFG Federation is an arm of the California Police Athletic Federation (CPAF) which is an American non-profit organisation.
The Games have a total of 10,000 participants just a little less that those who participated in the Summer Olympic Games, and surpassing the third place holders in that of the Commonwealth Games. In the first decade of the 2010s, The United Kingdom hosted all three events in succession including The 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England and then the 2013 World Police and Fire Games in Belfast, Northern Ireland, concluding with Glasgow, Scotland, hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games – the first time that all three events were held by the same country consecutively.
The city that hosted this year’s World Police and Fire Game was Fairfax County, Virginia, located in the United States, with venues in the Washington metropolitan area.
In 2017 the Games were planned to take place within the City of Montreal but, Montreal backed out of hosting the Games due to an unrest among the municipal government and the fire department. The Games were quickly moved to another date and held successfully within Los Angeles.
- In 2019 , the host city is Chengdu located in China.
- The WPFG 2021 date was delayed until 2022 due the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In 2022, the city that will host the event will be Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
History
The California Police Olympics were first held in 1967. The idea evolved throughout the years and led to the formation of the World Police and Fire Games Federation — a non-profit entity that is run through the California Police Athletics Federation in 1983. A year later, in 1985 it was the year that the inaugural World Police & Fire Games were held in San Jose, California, USA with over 5000 participants.
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The biggest WPFG events to date were played on the streets of New York, New York, USA with over 16,000 athletes taking part, representing more than 59 countries.
The most successful and well organized was held located in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2013. It was described by the president of the World Police and Fire Games Federation, Mike Graham, as “the friendliest and best Games ever”.
The Montreal Firefighters Association called for to boycott the 2017 Games which took place in their own city to protest against the forcible changes in their collective agreements as well as retirement funds by City of Montreal and the Quebec provincial government. The unions that represent over 100,000 civil servants and firefighters were joined by Montreal’s firefighters during the boycott.
