The World Police and Fire Games, founded in 1985, are held every two years throughout the world, and feature traditional events such as running, swimming and team sports, as well as job-specific events related to police and fire work.
There are canine competitions and a shooting competition for police, Fairfax Police Lt. Bruce Blechl said.
For firefighters, the event has a stair climb competition, in which firefighters climb a certain number of stairs — 31 flights are planned for 2015 — in full gear, complete with air tanks. Competitors also have the option of completing the climb in T-shirts and shorts.
Host cities 1985: San Jose, Calif.
1987: San Diego
1989: Vancouver, British Columbia
1991: Memphis, Tenn.
1993: Colorado
1995: Melbourne, Australia
1997: Calgary, Alberta
1999: Stockholm, Sweden
2001: Indianapolis
2003: Barcelona, Spain
2005: Quebec City
2007: Adelaide, Australia
2009: Vancouver, British Columbia
2011: New York City
2013 – Belfast, Northern Ireland
Other events include the bench press, Gaelic football, ice hockey, lawn bowling, golf, rugby and wrist wrestling. This year’s games were held from July 31 to Aug. 9 in Vancouver, British Columbia. With just shy of 10,600 competitors, the 2009 games set a record for the largest in history, besting the 2003 event hosted by Barcelona, Spain.
Fairfax beat out Toronto and Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the 2015 host of the World Police and Fire Games.
