Keep the Games in Canada eh?
A three time World Police and Fire Games gold medallist with sights on Tokyo 2020 is leading a one man charge for Calgary to salvage the currently homeless 2017 WFPG.
Before recently turning full-time athlete and taking a silver medal from this year’s taekwondo US World Open Championships Amarpal “Sunny” Singh worked in a number of roles across Calgary’s law enforcement scene.
Now Singh coaches the sport and occasionally uses his skills to take movie roles and fund his Olympian dream.
Despite the short notice Singh believes Calgary, who hosted the event in 1997 have the ability to pull things together.
“I feel that Calgary could really do a great job of hosting the games once again,” Singh told The Other Olympics.
“Calgary housed, clothed and fed over 100,000 people in 2013 during the flood. If agencies pull together I believe we can achieve the Games,” he added.
“It will be a great preparation for us hosting larger games such as the Olympics.”
Montreal were due to host the Games next July and August but were forced to withdraw after local firefighters pushed a boycott over the city’s attempts to force through changes to their pension plans.
Toronto briefly considered stepping in but when that fell through in July, Singh began his local media campaign to keep the Games in Canada.
“[If] officers are expected to put their life on the line for the community then the government should go over and above to ensure this event rewards not just law enforcement but also boosts the local economy,” said Singh.
Now Singh — who still speaks with the broad accent of his hometown of Manchester, United Kingdom after he moved to Canade with the intent of representing the nation in taekwondo at the elite-level — is meeting public and police figures in an attempt to garner support.
On August 30, the World Police and Fire Games Federation announced that a working group in Los Angeles, near the home of the California Police Athletics Federation who first founded these Games in 1985, had completed a feasibility study into hosting the Games and would announce whether they could secure the necessary funding within the next 10–14 days.
But with the 2015 Fairfax, Virgina and the 2011 New York Games having been held in the USA, Sunny wants to keep the Games Canadian.
Should they Los Angeles, Singh is ready to step up and hopes that his local government are too.
