2Thrive, a newly established nonprofit, has secured the exclusive rights to stage the World Corporate Games across the United States through 2023.
“Competitive sport has the ability to bridge a variety of seemingly impenetrable barriers,” said Kurt Aichele, president of 2Thrive and the former CEO of USA Fencing. “Normally we rally to overcome socioeconomic, geographic, cultural, religious and ethnic barriers bridged by sport. It’s time to focus our efforts internally in the U.S. and find a way to surmount the unspoken barrier residing between active and sedentary lifestyles. The Corporate Games offer the platform to make that vision real.”
The Corporate Games are the world’s largest corporate multisport festivals, designed to provide a mix of sports, business and tourism. They were created to improve lifelong fitness, morale and team building in the workplace through participation in competitive sport and have an average participation of 4,000 to 20,000 athletes. The Colorado-based 2Thrive includes professionals responsible for organizing and delivering some of the largest multisport games and festivals across the world.
“Kurt and his team have an abundance of experience in staging world-class sporting events across the globe and I have no doubt that this success can be replicated with Corporate Games in cities across America,” said Doug White, World Corporate Games global partnership director. “After a lengthy search to find a first-class event partner, we are delighted to bring the world’s largest multisport festivals for businesses back home to the U.S. where it all began more than 25 years ago.”
2Thrive expects to begin collecting interest from U.S. cities for hosting opportunities, with the goal for the first event to be staged in fall 2016.