Special year – special vote: in 2020 The World Games celebrate 40 years, and have planned a special vote for this purpose: The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time! Matthias Hofbauer is one of the 24 athletes nominated to become The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time.
The candidates could be from any edition of The World Games’ 40 year long history, as long as they are or have been the best of the best.
The IFF decided to nominate the legendary Swiss floorballer Matthias Hofbauer for his great performance at the World Games 2017. At The World Games in 2017 Matthias Hofbauer led Switzerland to a historic silver medal. In four matches he scored five goals and gave four assists and was Switzerland’s top scorer and the second best scorer overall. Matthias Hofbauer ended his playing career in 2020 after 23 years on top, and to celebrate his long and outstanding career, he was also chosen as The World Games Athlete of April 2020.
The World GamesMember federations have nominated 24 candidates for the online vote, and the list is now published here!
Voting starts on 8th of January
When the voting begins on 8th January 2021, the public audience can vote daily, everyone once per 24 hours, for their favourite. Like last year, they will also need to vote for another candidate at the same time.
– The first candidate they choose gets two votes, and the second candidate one vote. We started with this initiative a year ago, in order to get The World Games family to know each other better; after choosing your favourite, you will choose a candidate from another sport too. This way you will get to see who else is there and with what kind of background story, Communication Officer Anna Jacobson explains in The World Games press release.
The voting ends on 1st February, but 20th January is another important milestone: on Wednesday 20th January 2021 at 16:00 CET, only the 10 highest ranked candidates at that time will continue in the race. They will keep the votes earned by then. At the end, the three best athletes will be awarded with a trophy and a branded gift from the official sponsor Protective Life.
– Traditionally, we have had The World Games Athlete of the Year vote. I am delighted to see that the international federations have joined The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time campaign with at least as much enthusiasm as when voting for an athlete of that specific year. We have candidates from all editions of The World Games, and it will be very exciting to see which athletes and sports are strongest this time, Anna Jacobson says.
