Amateur Athletes Shine at TWG 2025

Less than two weeks before his 72nd birthday, British carpenter Richard Keightley won a gold medal in the Men’s Outdoor 640kg event of Tug of War at the ongoing The World Games (TWG) 2025 Chengdu.

 

Keightley has loved Tug of War for more than half a century. Once a key competitor in the British team, he now works on logistics and training but still joins team practice twice a week.

 

(Video by China News Service)

 

Keightley is one of the many non-professional athletes at TWG 2025 Chengdu, which bring together competitors from all walks of life — from carpenters and car mechanics to dentists and robotics engineers.

 

German Tug of War competitor Jakob Schlegel, an auto mechanic, said it is daily training rather than one’s job that defines a TWG athlete.

 

Riccardo Rancan of Switzerland, the first gold medalist of this year’s Games in Orienteering, is a robotics software engineer. He said his flexible job allows him to train twice a day while working half-days from home.

 

Team Indonesia (front) celebrate after the 10-seater 500m final of Dragon Boat event at The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, 10 Aug., 2025. (Xinhua/Li Jianan)

 

In Dragon Boat of Canoe, which made its debut TWG, Indonesia emerged as the biggest winner with three golds and two silvers. The team is made up entirely of amateur paddlers, from students to police officers, united by their enthusiasm for the sport.

 

Team China has sent its largest-ever delegation to TWG, with two-thirds of its 321 athletes being amateurs, including teachers, students and freelancers. Zhang Wei, 37, a former member of China’s national Waterski & Wakeboard team and now a law enforcement officer, said he came to compete at TWG 2025 “just to enjoy the passion and joy of the sport.”

 

Edited by Sang Yarong

Proofread by Huang Shuting

Reviewed by Lei Lei