The beautiful city of Antalya will host the 2023 IFMA Youth World Championships, which will see a record number of participants and countries alike. Qualification for the event has been held all over the world, with the last 4 weeks having seen over 3000 youths participating in the final qualification from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and the Kingdom of Thailand.
The Director General of IFMA, Charissa Tynan, stated that the importance of this event is in the balance between cultural education and sporting exchange which is the foundation of Olympism and certainly IFMA.
The event will start with a muaythai grading, the biggest youth grading ever performed, with over 1200 youths coming together to do the traditional Khan 1 celebration. The event will have three rings with around 150 contests per day and there will also be the Wai Kru and Mai Muay competitions, the Muay Kita and Muay Talay which will make up the fun part of the event.
The Chair of the IFMA Athletes Commission stated that education is key in IFMA grassroots development, and this is why there will be grassroot development education from anti-doping to fair play.
Hasan Yildiz, the President of Turkey Muaythai Federation stated that the event is within IFMA sustainability policy, ‘all-in-one’, where the accommodation venue and other facilities are in one complex, which is also important for safety reasons. It is certainly a plus that the venue is beachfront and contains a massive waterpark, same as was applied last year in the 2022 Youth Championship in Malaysia. The opening ceremony will certainly include cultural elements, but also fun elements, building on the slogan “unity in diversity”.
To ensure that there will be much support also from the senior executive, the IFMA executive board meeting and the EU AGM will be held during the event.
