2010 SportAccord World Combat Games: My LAST Wushu Competition

August 28th, 2010 marked a special date for me. It would be the last time I would set foot on the competition floor as a competing wushu athlete.

The World Combat Games are an international multi-sport event featuring Olympic and non-Olympic martial arts. The first World Combat Games featured Aikido, Boxing, Judo, Ju-Jitsu, Karate, Kendo, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Hapkido, Sambo, Sumo, Taekwondo, Wrestling, and Wushu.

The World Combat Games were initiated by SportAccord, the umbrella organisation for international sports federations and organizers of sports events, in order to bring these sports closer to a worldwide public. The World Combat Games are accompanied by a cultural program that reflects the modern contributions as well as the ancient traditions and values of martial arts. This was the first ever World Combat Games. This years games were held in Beijing with over 1000 athletes from all five continents in participation. About the same number of volunteers helped to make the event happen. The 2nd World Combat Games will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2013.

For wushu, in order to qualify you had to place top 6 out of all countries at the World Wushu Championships. For the World Combat Games, I qualified for the US under my Changquan (aka Long Fist) event.

Changquan was the first event of the entire Combat Games held at 9am on August 28th, 2010. There was significant media coverage and the event was in part sponsored by Samsung. I was second to compete. There were cameras on jibs, bright lights, and hundreds of people in the audience– Just how I hoped my last competition would be like. When I stepped out onto the carpet, I thought “This is it.” In wushu I had pretty much done what I had set out to do. I had competed and medaled at the World Championships; Now I was at another olympic level competition with hundreds of spectators in the stands competing against each countries finest. I gave a clean strong performance. Given that I have been focusing on work full-time for the past 3 months I was happy with my performance. Moreover, this event was held in Beijing, the birthplace of modern wushu so it was fitting and ideal for my last tournament to be held here. I’m also glad I shared this competition and experience with some really great wushu friends and teammates. – My dreams as a wushu athlete were completed today.

2010 SportAccord Combat Games – Long Fist

Following the competition I had a few interviews and I was a guest on Beijing TV’s show “Common Ground” (BTV 国际双行线)

In addition the Opening Ceremony held on the evening of the 28th spared no expense as a dazzling display of physical prowess and beautiful music filled the stadium main floor.

13 ambassadors for each sport were in attendance – among the ambassadors were Korean actor Jeong Jun Ho, Olympic Champions Rulon Gardner (Wrestling) and Robert Van de Walle (Judo), martial artist Don “the dragon” Wilson, mma fighter Fedor “the last emperor” Emelianenko, and many other legends of martial arts. Jet Li was the Combat Games 2010 Ambassador. The final closing song of the evening was sung by Jackie Chan who was surrounded by dancers and acrobats as the ceremony came to a close.