A draft competition schedule has been published for the seven sports expected to feature, and countries are being invited to send expressions of interest.

Teams will begin arriving on 2 October ahead of the Opening Ceremony and first matches for cerebral palsy football the following day. Classification will also take place over two days at the start of the competition.

Tuesday (4 October) will see the start of archery at the Yunost Sport Complex, as well as table tennis and badminton at the Youg Sport Complex.

Athletics, sitting volleyball and swimming will get underway on 5 October. Swimmers will be welcomed to the picturesque swimming venue in the heart of Krasnaya Polyana in the Sochi Natural Park.

Exciting conclusions to sitting volleyball and cerebral palsy football are expected on Friday (7 October) and Saturday (8 October) ahead of the Closing Ceremony, also on 8 October.

The 2022 IWAS World Games will be the first edition in three years following the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also be the second time they have been staged in Sochi, following on from 2015.

Entries open on 4 July. The final competition schedule will be confirmed once entries have closed on 19 August.

IWAS members have been sent the official invitation and link to register their initial interest in participating.

Designed to give aspiring Paralympians and emerging athletes their first taste of international competition, the IWAS World Games have helped produce many of the world’s big name stars.

These include the USA’s seven-time Paralympic track champion Tatyana McFadden and Great Britain’s double gold-medallist sprinter Jonnie Peacock. Germany’s long jump T44 world record holder Markus Rehm and Italian world and Paralympic wheelchair fencing title-holder Beatrice Vio have also competed.