Cyclists on the medal podium at the World OutGames in Antwerp, Belgium in 2013. (Photo courtesy OutGames)

The Rio Olympics may be winding down, but the 2017 World OutGames is just getting started.

The OutGames, which will take place next May in Miami, is a 10-day event that features 450 events in “sport, culture and human rights.” The 2017 OutGames will be a similar sporting competition to its previous years and open to all individuals regardless of sexual orientation to compete in a variety of disciplines. About 15,000 people are expected.

However, World OutGames Chief Operating Officer Keith Hart says there will be a few additions to the competition line-up. Dominos, a popular sport in South Florida, and netball, played primarily in Asia, Australia and the United Kingdom, have been added. Netball is also primarily a women’s sport making its inclusion in the World OutGames a chance for people to be exposed to a sporting event they may not have come across.

The opening ceremony takes place at Marlins Park, a Major League Baseball park that will be able to accommodate a large number of spectators. Plans to have the social events and entertainment include South Floridian culture are underway.

The games will also be a time of celebration as the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association marks its 25th anniversary and swimming celebrates its 30th anniversary during the event. According to Hart, a large number of swimmers are expected to compete in the coming year for the aquatic competitions in diving, synchronized swimming and water polo.

Swimming events are planned for the Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Miami. Soccer is also anticipated to be exciting to watch with the finals taking place at the Florida International University Stadium.

The number of spectators is expected to be the highest ever. World OutGames has made an effort to connect with various organizations to increase numbers. Hart says joining a strong spectatorship along with competing registered athletes is a big part of establishing LGBT camaraderie.

“We don’t exclude people,” Hart says. “It’s open to the world. It’s an opportunity to showcase true diversity and that people can come together with a common bond. And that common bond could be a soccer field, a badminton court or it could be a dominos table. They come together and the interest is not about who you are or where you live, but the interest is, ‘Hey, let’s play awesome darts or dominos,’ or ‘Let’s get out there and have a rainbow of all kinds of folks swimming.’”

The World OutGames held its first event in 2006 in Montreal. Efforts to combine the World OutGames with the Gay Games have been underway for events in the coming years. Hart says right now the focus is to make Miami’s World OutGames a success and for the Gay Games to do the same for its competition in 2018 in Paris.

The south Florida location in Miami is also significant for the event, which will fall almost on the one-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. According to Hart, this is an ideal time for the World OutGames to make Florida its host.

“It will give us an opportunity to celebrate lives and to really bring people together for a common cause of equality and unity,” Hart says. “The World OutGames is going to showcase an opportunity for people from all walks of life to display that tragic things do happen, and it’s unfortunate that they happen, but there are also a lot of good things that happen when people of all types come together.”