KAZAN, February 14. /TASS/. Athletes representing 277 teams hailing from 107 countries have been accredited to participate in the 2024 Games of the Future, which are set to kick off in Russia next week, a senior Russian sports official said on Wednesday.

"Today, we are probably witnessing one of the milestone happenings as our accreditation database shows a registered representation of athletes at the tournament from 107 countries," Republic of Tatarstan Sports Minister Vladimir Leonov told journalists.

"Virtually the entire world is coming to visit us, our country, our Kazan [capital of Tatarstan]," he noted.

Leonov added that, on the whole, over 2,000 participants from 277 teams will be taking part in the tournament. Athletes and cyber-athletes will be competing in 21 innovative sports disciplines.

2024 Games of the Future

The inaugural cybersport Games of the Future will be hosted by the Russian city of Kazan between February 21 and March 3, 2024. They will consist of new disciplines combining advanced technology, the digital environment and physical activity.

The competitions are designed to use cutting-edge developments in cybersports, robotics, both augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR), information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI). The tournament offers $25 million in prize money.

As part of the preparations for the Games of the Future, Russia has organized a series of Phygital Games. The first Phygital Games were held in September 2022 and they were followed by numerous editions until today with the most recent one held in Kazan between October 5 and 22, 2023.