The World Police and Fire Games is a biennial athletic event, open to active and retired law enforcement and fire service personnel throughout the world. The WPFG Federation is an arm of the California Police Athletic Federation, an American non-profit organization. The Games attract approximately 10,000 entrants, slightly fewer than the Summer Olympic Games, and exceeding the third position holder, the Commonwealth Games. In the early 2010s, The United Kingdom hosted all three events consecutively; the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, followed by the 2013 World Police and Fire Games in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and ending with Glasgow, Scotland, hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games - the first time all three events have been hosted by the same nation consecutively. The hostcity of the 2015 World Police and Fire Game was Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States, with venues located around the Washington metropolitan area. In 2019 the host city was Chengdu in China. In 2021 the host city will be Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In 2023 the host city will be Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada.
History
The California Police Olympics were first held in 1967. The concept evolved over the years and led to the creation of the World Police & Fire Games Federation—a non-profit organization, run by the Californian Police Athletics Federation—in 1983. Two years later, in 1985, the first World Police & Fire Games were held in San Jose, California, USA, with nearly 5,000 competitors. The largest WPFG games to date was held in New York, New York, USA with over 16,000 athletes in attendance, from 59 nations. The most successful and best organised was 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 a boycott of the 2017 Games, which were held in their own city, in protest against forced changes to their collective agreements and pension funds by the City of Montreal and the Quebec provincial government. Labor unions representing over 100,000 firefighters and civil servants joined Montreal's firefighters in the boycott.
