Badger State Winter Games Conclude

Nation's Largest Winter Sports Festival Concludes Wausau, WI-February 9, 2004-The Badger State Winter Games concluded yesterday with 4,123 athletes contesting 14 sports over two weekends in Wausau and central Wisconsin. Many of those athletes competed in more than one event for a total of 6,067 competitors vying for over one thousand medals. These participation numbers continue to make the Badger State Games the largest multiple winter sport festival in the nation. "The Games were a great success," said Ryan Richards, Vice President of Operations for the Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation, the company that owns and operates the Badger State Games. "We had a record number of teams in adult hockey, while indoor archery and bowling had impressive numbers in their first year and were great new additions to the Games." The additions of non-weather dependent sports like bowling, indoor archery and freestyle skiing were made to increase the economic impact of the Badger State Games on the Wausau area especially during lean snow years. These new sports added more than 300 participants to the Games. Badger State Games are presented by Wausau Insurance Companies. Major sponsors are American Family Insurance, Mobil, Ho-Chunk Nation, WEAC, Charter Communications, St. Joseph's Hospital-Marshfield and Dairy Farm Families of Wisconsin.