The State Games of Mississippi preps for their 27th year

For more than 27 years the state games of Mississippi has brought out the best athletic competition not only for meridian but also for the entire state of Mississippi.

The idea for the state games of Mississippi was inspired by the state of Georgia games.

“Somebody went and visited Georgia and witnessed the Georgia games 27 years ago and brought it back here to meridian and suggested we started up a state game,” Gianakos explained.

What began as something small has really evolved into something bigger.

“We started off with just 12 sports it was just over one weekend and it had about 1800 participants I think that was the number and it’s really grown since then what’s amazing is 27 years later we’ve got 42 sports and over 6-thousand participants last year," Gianakos said.

Krilecia Gianakos the marketing and development director for the event is very proud of the many sports and numerous locations where activities take place.

“The state games of Mississippi are hosted in several cities around the state of Mississippi we host canoe kayaking and stand up paddle boarding on the coast. we have golf in Hattiesburg. we have fencing in Oxford Mississippi, we have cycling and mountain biking. in Jackson, we also have a wheelchair fencing at Methodist rehab in Jackson," Giankos said. “We just keep growing and getting bigger and bigger I mean the economic impact keeps growing and growing it’s 9.3 million dollars on our last economic impact study."