In two weeks Ames will be flooded with athletes from around Iowa and that can only mean one thing; the Iowa Games are here.

Not only are the Iowa Games being held from August 4-6, but they will compete with the Junior Olympics in Des Moines.

“It hasn’t affected us nearly as much as I thought it would,” Jim Hallihan, Executive Director of the Iowa Games said. “They will affect us a little more in the individual sports.”

“We’re loaning our Olympic cauldron to the Junior Olympics; we’re trying to cooperate. It can only positively impact the Iowa Games.”

So far 14,000 athletes have registered to participate this year compared to the total of 14,371 last year. The Games reached their peak participation in 1990 with 15,139. The addition of a couple of new sports has helped diversify the Games.

“Everytime you add a new sport you always have to have a start,” Hallihan said. “There’s 150 entries in power tumbling.

“That’s really good considering the Junior Olympics are going on at the same time, they have 1,000 entries.”

Hallihan also thought soccer would be adversely affected by the Games in Des Moines. “[The Junior Olympics] opened [the competition] up to Iowa teams and I thought “oh, man,” Hallihan said. “We ended up with thirty more teams than last year. That was a pleasant surprise for us.

The Games sponsored qualifying festivals earlier in July in Des Moines, Cedar Falls/Waterloo, Muscatine and Storm Lake for team sports like basketball, youth soccer, bowling and volleyball.

These Games mark the ninth anniversary of the Iowa Games and Hallihan’s second anniversary as Executive Director. Which reminds Hallihan of his first contact with the Iowa Games when he was an assitant basketball coach at ISU.

“Ames was putting a pitch on to keep the Games in Ames and Coach Orr was supposed to go down to the Athletic Union and make a pitch just as a celebrity-type person,” Hallihan said. “He couldn’t go, so I went. That was my first real contact with the Iowa Games. It’s kind of funny.”

Now that Hallihan is really familiar with the Games, and not just making a pitch, he and his staff have put all their energies into making an exciting opening ceremony this year.

Tony Muse will be the celebrity torch carrier. Muse, a West Des Moines native, won a gold medal in the Pan American Games and has 21 world gold medals to his name in in-line skating.

The torch run will start at Nollen Plaza in Des Moines at noon and will end up in Ames at 8 p.m.

“He will come down Elwood Drive on roller blades with his Pan American outfit on that he won the gold medal in,” Hallihan said. Dave Eilders and Whitney Sondal, the Citgo Athletes of the Year, will take the torch from there and light the torch together, Hallihan said.

“I think it will be fun,” Hallihan added.