CUE SPORTS DEBUT AT 2001 WORLD GAMES; JEANETTE LEE TAKES GOLD Colorado Springs, CO-Jeanette Lee (USA) defeated one of her toughest competitors, Karen Corr (IRE), 9-3 to win the gold medal at the sixth World Games in Akita, Japan. The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) sponsored the United States team in the inaugural year for the inclusion of cue sports in the World Games. Rounding out Team USA were Vivian Villarreal, Buddy Hall and Jon Kucharo. The World Games were held August 16-26, 2001 in 21 different venues. The Games included events for five demonstration sports and 26 official sports, with participating athletes representing 80 countries from around the world. The USA totaled 15 gold, eight silver and eight bronze medals in official sport events and one bronze in a demonstration sport event. There are three requirements for any sport to be included in the World Games. First, there must be a solid history of world championships. Second, there must be a demonstrated worldwide structure and appeal of the sport. Finally, the particular discipline cannot be on the program for the Olympic Games. The Worldwide Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS) strongly encouraged the inclusion of snooker, caroms and pool in the World Games, helping cue sports make its debut this World Games, said BCA Executive Director Stephen Ducoff. “They [the athletes] were terrific. This may be the first time our athletes have participated in a multi-sport, multi-national event and they did extremely well,” said Mr. Ducoff. At the age of 13, Ms. Lee was diagnosed with scoliosis and has since undergone multiple surgeries. After her most recent surgery in June 2001, She was able to bounce back and dominate her competition at not only the World Games, but also at the 2001 BCA Open 9-Ball Championships where she defeated Karen Corr in the finals. 2001 has been a great year for Ms. Lee with top-ten finishes in five out of her six tournaments. Ms. Lee began playing pool in 1992 and in less than two years became the number-one player in the world. She went on to win the Women’s Professional Billiards Association (WPBA) Sportsperson of the Year award in 1998, after being nominated for the award in 1995 and 1997. She is the national spokesperson for the Scoliosis Foundation and founder of the Jeanette Lee Foundation, a charity that supports and encourages disabled persons. She is also a member of the BCA’s Billiard Education Foundation Committee and sits on the Board of Trustees for the Women’s Sports Foundation. Under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International World Games Association (IWGA) hosts the World Games every fourth year following the year of the summer Olympics. The World Games differ from the Olympic Games in that the International Federation of each sport, not the country, selects the participants and existing facilities are often used as venues for the Games instead of new structures being built. Several sports that began in the World Games were later included in the Olympic program, including as beach volleyball, Tae Kwon Do and badminton. However, once a sport is admitted to the Olympic Games it can no longer participate in the World Games. Cue sports’ admission to the World Games gives hope to a future where pool, snooker and caroms become Olympic sports; a key goal of the BCA. “All of the events were well received by the 350 cue sport spectators and I think that shows this is definitely a step in the right direction,” said Mr. Ducoff. The seventh World Games will be held in Duisburg, Germany in 2005.