The ceremony involved the Mayor of Innsbruck, Georg Willi, who was joined by WWMG 2020 ambassadors Nicole Hosp, Manni Pranger and Andi Widhölzl together with Georg Spazier, chief executive of the Organising Committee.

The WWMG, which are open to competitors starting at the over-30 category, were first held in 2010 in Bled and were repeated in Quebec City in 2015.

The third staging in Austria will run from January 10 to 19.

The Championships, which will feature 12 sports disciplines including cross country skiing, ski jumping and biathlon across 24 age groups, will see as many as 2,000 medals awarded in four Austrian resorts.

All Nordic skiing events will be held in Seefeld, which this year hosted the World Nordic Ski Championships, with other events being held in Telfs, Kitzbühel and Innsbruck.

The event is being held under the aegis of the International Ski Federation (FIS), which claims it will set “new standards” for masters sport.

Registration for the WWMG 2020 opened almost three months ago and so far 1,102 athletes from 42 countries have signed up.

The most popular disciplines to date are figure skating and biathlon, which both sold out in less than 24 hours.

Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and ice hockey have also proved in demand.

“We are delighted with this sensational start to the registration phase,” said Spazier.

“Compared with previous masters events, Innsbruck 2020 has gained a lot of traction early on.

“We are working hard on creating additional capacity in the most popular disciplines.”

The venues which will welcome the Winter World Masters Games 2020 have a long and rich history.

They have already hosted the Winter Olympics on two occasions, in 1964 and 1976, as well as the Winter Universiade in 1968 and 2005, the Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012, the 2016 Children’s Games and numerous World Cup events and World Championships.