Solving the Wor(l)d Games Mess

Which games are these really?

A surfer in flight. 

The World Games, going on right now in Cali, seem to be going pretty well sports-wise. At the games, held every four years, athletes from around the world compete in some 30 sports not included in the Olympics, including artistic roller skating, aerobic gymnastics, martial arts, ultimate frisbee, squash, rugby and bodybuilding.

It looks like fun, and is a great thing for the city of Cali - which can use positive press.

Unfortunately, the event has been marred, even overshadowed, by a ridiculous oversight. When winners examined their medals they discovered that the 'L' was missing, meaning they'd won honors not in the World Games, but the Word Games.

Games organizers are scrambling to deal with the silly error. Today, they promised to reissue all the medals.

Here, however, are my modest suggestions for making the best of this difficult situation.

1) Partner with world Scrabble, hangman and crossword puzzle competitions and give them the defective metals in exchange for any medals they may have mistakenly made with an extra 'L'.

The ultimate agony and ecstacy. 

2) Change the games' competition to Scrabble, hangman, crossword puzzles and spelling bees, to make the medals useful.

3) Replace the medals and say you've destroyed the defective ones - but save a few. In a few years, those 'Word Games' medals will be collectors items and can be auctioned off to finance the next World Games. (In fact, game officials plan to add the L to the medals with a laser beam.)

Meanwhile, the games go on. Colombia, boosted by hometown advantage, is doing well, in tenth place overall.

This looks like hockey, but it can't be.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours