"The World Games are a confirmation of the power of sport to unite us all, and a celebration of diversity," Bach said.

"It is a unique opportunity for sports not in the limelight all the time to enjoy the exposure, this is why the IOC is supporting The World Games, to give these athletes an opportunity of a lifetime.

"You can see we are watching closely and we are learning."

The Games in Birmingham, Alabama, were originally scheduled for last summer, but was moved to 2022 as a result of the pandemic.

All being well, it will feature 3,600 competitors from more than 100 countries.

The presence of the IOC President once again is an indication of just how far they have progressed since they were first staged in Santa Clara, California, over 40 years ago.

The first World Games were held in 1981, the year Bach first addressed the IOC as an athlete.

A speech by an athlete would never have been countenanced by Avery Brundage, IOC President from 1952 to 1972.

His leadership also antagonised international sports administrators from both Olympic and non-Olympic sport.

Switzerland's Thomi Keller, the leader of world rowing, was often at odds with Brundage and founded an organisation which eventually became known as the General Assembly of International Sports Federations (GAISF).

Even after Brundage stood down, many sports excluded from the Olympic programme still felt a sense of alienation.

At a 1975 GAISF meeting in Montreal, the launch of the World Games was tabled.

They were to be "a forum for those without Olympic recognition" according to GAISF secretary Oscar State.

Mexico City immediately expressed an interest and President Ferdinand Marcos was said to be interested in bringing the Games to the Philippines.

In October 1979, it was announced that the first World Games were to be held in Santa Clara, California.

By now, International Judo Federation President and British Olympic Association official Charles Palmer had become GAISF secretary.

"The World Games are certainly not in competition with the Olympics," Palmer insisted.

"They really would be a consolation for those sports which cannot get into the Olympics."

In May 1980, a group of non-Olympic International Federations gathered in Seoul to form the International World Games Association (IWGA) with representation from 12 sports but the launch was largely overshadowed by the growing crisis as American President Jimmy Carter campaigned for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The United States, Canada, Japan and West Germany all stayed away from the Moscow Olympics.

"The World Games is not being helped by the boycott," World Games executive director Hal Uplinger complained.

"Anything that detracts from sports, detracts from the World Games too."

Badminton, baseball and softball, taekwondo, trampolining and karate were included on the programme and would eventually graduate to the Olympics.

Uplinger also made an announcement which sent alarm bells through the Olympic movement.

"All the Olympic sports are eligible, if you excluded Olympic sports from the World Games, you would be doing to those sports what the Olympics had done to you," Uplinger affirmed.

United States Olympic Committee (USOC) President Philip Krumm soon described the World Games as "a splinter group" and branded them "harmful".

Newly elected IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch warned there should be "no duplication with the Olympic Games". 

Keller's biographer, our insidethegames colleague David Owen, describes "terse meetings" in the build-up to the 1981 World Games as relations between the GAISF leader and the IOC President became strained.

Soviet gymnastics official Yuri Titov and IOC member Vitali Smirnov jumped in to claim the World Games is "in opposition to the Olympic Movement".

Officials were also concerned that the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) had signed up.

 A meeting was held in the East German town of Halle after which, secretary Karl-Heinz Wehr revealed they had "decided unanimously to withdraw from the World Games".

The decision came too late to alter the original World Games emblem which still included boxing.

There had been financial difficulties and it took the intervention of marketing pioneer Patrick Nally, to ensure their survival.

"It is a wonder they went ahead," observed promotions officer Kent Hertenrath.

The Games opened at the Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara on July 24 1981, watched by 8,000 on a sunny afternoon.

"At our Opening Ceremony the athletes will march in by sports not by nations," Uplinger had said.

The flag for bodybuilding was carried by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the tribune of honour were Keller Palmer and Dr Kim Un-Yong, the South Korean leader of Taekwondo destined to become an IOC member and close ally of Samaranch. 

The IOC President himself was not present because he was attending the Association of National Olympic Committee meetings in Milan.

As International World Games Association (IWGA) President, Kim told the athletes: "Our theme is sport for the sake of sport, and a total disregard for where an athlete comes from."

It fell to Keller to officially declare them open.

"A long life and lots of success," Keller said.

 "Athletes appreciated any opportunity of mixing with athletes from different sports, a possibility which had previously been denied to athletes whose sport was not on the Olympic programme," he added.

The first event was tug of war, which had been an Olympic sport either side of the first world war.

Both Chinas competed, because a solution to a long-running dispute had been brokered between the nationalists of Taiwan, now known in sporting circles as Chinese Taipei, and the Communist mainland, designated as People’s Republic of China (PRC).

In Badminton, Zhang Ailing of the PRC beat South Korea’s Hwang Sun-ai to win women’s singles gold. 

She partnered Liu Xia to win the women’s doubles. 

Chen Changjie beat Denmark’s Frost Hansen to win the men’s singles. 

Sun Zhian and Yao Ximing took the men’s doubles.

The New York Times reported that the victories "were warmly received by an appreciative crowd of 1500."

Three years later, a PRC team returned to the Olympic fold in Los Angeles.

Chinese Taipei’s gold came from karateka Lin-Ching Ming in the men’s kumite.

Elsewhere, West Germany’s Jurgen Kolenda, a 20-year-old physics student from Berlin, won four fin swimming gold medals, demonstrating almost Phelps-like dominance.

Casting also produced a quadruple gold medallist in American Steve Rajeff, described in fly fishing circles as a "gentle giant".

As the Games ended, there was an air traffic controllers' strike at the airport. 

"Fortunately, most athletes left after the completion of their competition," World Games secretary Don Porter said.

"The problems were minimal in light of the competitive success of the first World Games," Kim claimed later.

"We take pride in stating that as a sports festival, it was a very big success."

Kim again reassured IOC members "it never was nor is, intended to conflict with existing Games."

London hosted the second World Games in the summer of 1985 but it took an eleventh hour injection of cash by 86-year-old Japanese shipbuilding tycoon Riochi Sasakawa to ensure they took place.

"I sincerely hope that World games will contribute to bring world peace, happiness, health and longevity to as many people as possible in the world," Sasakawa said at the Opening Ceremony in the Wembley Conference Centre.

Media releases depicted him in martial arts costume but did not mention his classification as a war criminal after the second world war.

"These World Games are staged in accordance with the spirit and aims laid down in the Olympic Charter and have received the full support of his excellency Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of IOC," Un Yong Kim told competitors.

"The World Games is an innovation that deserves a warm welcome, a positive response from sports officials and the public and the interest of all open minded people." 

A song called "World Game" by country singer John Denver was adopted as the official song.

"I want to play in the world game, I want to make sure everybody knows the score," Denver sang.

The National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace in South London staged roller hockey, fin swimming, netball, taekwondo, trampolining and karate.

Speedway, petanque faustball, softball and casting were all held in North London at Barnet Copthall, a venue where leading rugby union club Saracens now play.

Karate gold medallists included Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Board vice Chairman Geoff Thompson.

"A home Games is always a fantastic opportunity, especially for the non-Olympic sports who were going through that unique World Games experience," Thompson told insidethegames.

His wife Janice Argyle had won gold the previous day.

"I think what made the World Games so unique was the fact that you came in by sport and that you really did get to understand other sports," Thompson added.

"I believe a Games should allow you something that goes beyond your own ambitions, your own specific goal, it was a fantastic time."

There were no national flags or anthems used and Aaron Copland’s "Fanfare for the Common Man" was played at medal ceremonies.

In 1989, Karlsruhe hosted the first Games to be attended by an IOC President.

Juan Antonio Samaranch described them as "the answer to a need".

They also received a subsidy of 150,000 Deutschmarks ($80,162/£73,781/€76,000) from the West German Government.

They were the first to have a mascot, a peacock called "Karlchen", decorated with the city motto "Fidelitas".

A theme song was performed by a local band called "The Top Motion".

"The 1989 vintage was enjoyed by everyone," GAISF news bulletin editor Jean Louis Meuret said.

A total of 54 countries sent competitors to the Games, these included athletes from the Soviet Union for the first time.

Fin swimmer Serghei Akhapov won 13 medals and set a world record for 200 metres with flippers of 1:25.70. 

In 1993, the Games were held in the Dutch city of Den Haag (The Hague) but the IWGA reported "friction" in administering the Games and IWGA President Ron Froehlich admitted it had been the "athletes who had saved the Games".

IOC vice-president Kevan Gosper and future President Jacques Rogge were both among spectators.

French water skier Patrice Martin added another gold to a remarkable sequence stretching back to 1981.

Triathlon made its debut and there was home success as Jan Van der Marel led the Dutch to team gold.

Future Olympian Mieke Suys of Belgium won the women’s title.

Another new sport was beach volleyball.

"Despite the cold and the wind, the beach volleyball competitions were of an excellent standard," the official report said. 

The 1997 Games were awarded to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, but only two years before they were due to take place, it was announced that they were to be moved "on account of a change in political priorities".

Within three months, a deal had been signed for Lahti in Finland to step in.

Some 25 different sports took part and Lahti was hailed as a great success.

The new millennium took the Games to Asia as the Japanese city of Akita hosted competitors from 80 nations in 2001.

The poster for the Games included the Olympic Rings, a sign of IOC support.

A World Games Plaza was an innovation and the sports programme introduced billiards, orienteering and flying disc.

Air sports were also brought in for the first time.

Germany’s Marco Pflueger won gold in a mixed event for "accuracy landing".

Americans won two of the three gold medals on offer in skydiving.

Rugby seven also made its debut as Fiji's men won the first of three successive gold medals, a foretaste of their Olympic glory in 2016 and 2021.

The 2005 Games in Duisburg were described as a "games changer".

A total of 3,149 competitors from 93 countries took part in the 26 sports.

The Opening Ceremony was sold out and teams entered by nation for the first time.

The mascot "Allwin" was a fantasy creature.

Sumo wrestling was a full medal sport for the first time, and although Japan won three gold medals in the men's events, Germany's Sandra Koeppen won the women's heavyweight and there were also golds for Ukrainian and Russian wrestlers.

In 2008, Beijing hosted the monumental Olympics and the following year The World Games were held in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

"The Games held in are providing a platform for the world to understand Taiwan better," the Taiwan News said.

The Opening Ceremony was held in spectacular style and attracted around 6,000 participants from a record 101 nations.

It proved politically charged because although athletes from the People's Republic of China competed in the sport, they snubbed the Opening Ceremony where Taiwanese head of state Ma Ying-jeou was present.

Outside the stadium, protesters carried banners proclaiming "One China, one Taiwan" and "Taiwan is not China".

The event was hailed by IWGA President Froelich as the "best ever" but doping cases in bodybuilding blighted the overall picture.

In 2013, the Colombian city of Cali welcomed the Games to South America for the first time.

Held at 1000m above sea level, they were attended by IOC President Jacques Rogge.

Dance sport included salsa, won by Colombians Adriana Avila and Jefferson Andres Benjumea.

Meanwhile, Pedro Armando Causil won two gold medals in roller speedskating, the most-successful sport for the host nation.

In 2017, women’s lacrosse became part of the programme for the first time and in Birmingham, the men are set to join them.

A team from the Iroquois indigenous group is expected to make their debut.

Organisers of the Birmingham 2022 Games claim they will "showcase a new generation of global sports".

The programme includes 35 sports with drone racing, canoe marathon, breaking, parkour duathlon and wushu among the newcomers.