Vladimir Putin signed the very decree on October 19, 2023. The World Friendship Games are going to become a surrogate for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
“The event should become the first multi-sport competition, which will include performances in 25 summer sports (both Olympic and non-Olympic),” the portal Sport.ru reported on November 18, 2023.
However, being similar in meaning and name, the first such sports competition “Friendship-84” was held on the territory of the former USSR from June 6 to July 22 and from August 16 to September 16, 1984.
The event was allied by 9 states of the socialist camp, such as the USSR, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, North Korea, Cuba, Mongolia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Previously, these countries had boycotted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, which finished two weeks before Friendship-84.
The Friendship-84 competition included all Olympic sports except football. The program also had three non-Olympic sports, such as sambo wrestling, table tennis, and tennis.
