Youtube

Go to The Main Page Add Youtube to favorite!

Pan American Games 

Pan American Games

Pan American Sports Organization logo


First Event 1951 Pan American Games
Occur every every four years
Last Event 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro
Purpose Sports for the Americas
Website 2011 Pan American Games

The Pan American Games are a multi-sport event, held every four years between competitors from all nations of the Americas. The last edition was held in Rio de Janeiro and the next will be in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Contents

History

The idea of holding a Pan American Games grew from the Central American Games first organised in the 1920s. In 1932, a first proposal was made for Pan American Games, and the Pan American Sports Organization was established. The first Games were scheduled to be staged in Buenos Aires in 1943, but World War II caused them to be postponed until 1951. Since then, the Games have been held every four years, with participation at the most recent event at over 5,000 athletes from 42 countries.

However, the Pan American Games have lost status, particularly in the United States, and have not received much attention in the sporting press as of late in the United States and Canada. The 1999 games in Winnipeg, Canada were attended at least partially by second-string U.S. athletes (each U.S. sport federation is allowed to determine who it will send), and media coverage within the U.S. was limited, due primarily to the main t.v. broadcast rights being granted solely to U.S. Spanish-language television. In Canada, there was plenty of coverage, including a nightly two-hour program on CBC, with an additional hour on local affiliate CBWT, French-language coverage on Radio-Canada, plus daytime coverage on TSN. By 2003, the Pan American Games were once again neglected by the media.

Map of countries that participate in the Pan American Games
Map of countries that participate in the Pan American Games

Generally, the Pan American Games receive plenty of attention in most Latin American countries. The 2007 edition, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has prompted the Organizing Committee to restore important venues such as the Estádio do Maracanã and build a new Olympic Village.

Winter Games

There have been attempts to hold Pan American Winter Games as well, but these have been without much success. An initial attempt to hold winter events was made by the organizers of the 1951 Pan American Games in Buenos Aires, who planned to stage winter events later in the year but dropped the idea for lack of interest.

Lake Placid, New York, tried to organize Winter Games in 1959, but again not enough American countries expressed interest and the plans were canceled.

In 1988, members of PASO voted to hold the first Pan American Winter Games at Las Leñas, Argentina in September 1989. It was further agreed that Winter Games would be held every four years. Lack of snow forced postponement of the games until Sept. 16-22, 1990, when eight countries sent 97 athletes to Las Lenas. Of that total, 76 were from just three countries, Argentina, Canada, and the United States. Weather was unseasonably warm and again there was little snow, so only three Alpine skiing events--the Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super G--were staged. The U.S. and Canada combined to win all 18 medals.

PASO awarded the second Pan American Winter Games to Santiago, Chile for 1993. The United States warned that it would not take part unless a full schedule of events was held. The Santiago organizing committee eventually gave up and the idea has not been revived since.

Locations of Pan American Games

Year Games Host City Country Date Athletes Nations Sports Most Gold Medals
1951 I Buenos Aires  Argentina February 25 - March 9, 1951 2513 21 18  Argentina
1955 II Mexico City  Mexico March 12 - March 26, 1955 2583 22 17  United States
1959 III Chicago  United States August 27 - September 7, 1959 2263 25 18  United States
1963 IV São Paulo  Brazil April 20 - May 5, 1963 1665 22 19  United States
1967 V Winnipeg  Canada July 23 - August 6, 1967 2361 29 18  United States
1971 VI Cali  Colombia July 30 - August 13, 1971 2935 32 18  United States
1975 VII Mexico City  Mexico October 12 - October 26, 1975 3146 33 18  United States
1979 VIII San Juan  Puerto Rico July 1 - July 15, 1979 3700 34 22  United States
1983 IX Caracas  Venezuela August 14 - August 29, 1983 3426 36 23  United States
1987 X Indianapolis  United States August 8 - August 23, 1987 4453 38 30  United States
1991 XI Havana  Cuba August 2 - August 18, 1991 4519 39 26  Cuba
1995 XII Mar del Plata  Argentina March 12 - March 26, 1995 5144 42 34  United States
1999 XIII Winnipeg  Canada July 23 - August 8, 1999 5275 42 34  United States
2003 XIV Santo Domingo  Dominican Republic August 1 - August 17, 2003 5196 42 35  United States
2007 XV Rio de Janeiro  Brazil July 13 - July 29, 2007 5,634 42 41  United States
2011 XVI Guadalajara  Mexico October 13 - October 30, 2011
2015 XVII to be announced 2009 TBA summer, 2015

Medals table

The table below gives an overview of the all-time medal count of the Pan American Games.

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  United States 1748 1295 873 3916
2  Cuba 781 531 481 1793
3  Canada 348 547 682 1577
4  Argentina 258 279 363 900
5  Brazil 239 283 401 923
6  Mexico 157 217 409 783
7  Venezuela 73 156 224 453
8  Colombia 57 109 162 328
9  Chile 37 70 108 215
10  Puerto Rico 21 72 113 206
11  Jamaica 21 33 59 113
12  Dominican Republic 19 43 85 147
13  Ecuador 14 13 36 63
14  Uruguay 11 22 42 75
15  Trinidad and Tobago 8 17 25 50
16  Guatemala 7 12 29 48
17  Bahamas 6 11 9 26
18  Peru 5 28 58 91
19  Netherlands Antilles 4 9 16 29
20  Costa Rica 4 6 10 20
21  Suriname 4 2 5 11
22  Panama 3 20 24 47
23  Guyana 2 4 11 17
24  El Salvador 1 6 12 19
25  Bermuda 1 4 3 8
26  Antigua and Barbuda 1 0 3 4
27  United States Virgin Islands 0 4 5 9
28  Barbados 0 3 7 10
 Nicaragua 0 3 7 10
30  Cayman Islands 0 3 0 3
31  Haiti 0 2 5 7
32  Paraguay 0 1 6 7
33  Honduras 0 1 4 5
34  Bolivia 0 1 2 3
 Grenada 0 1 2 3
36  Dominica 0 1 1 2
37  Belize 0 0 2 2
 Saint Lucia 0 0 2 2
39  Aruba 0 0 1 1
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 0 0 1 1
41  British Virgin Islands 0 0 0 0
 Curaçao 0 0 0 0
 Saint Kitts and Nevis 0 0 0 0
 Sint Maarten 0 0 0 0
3497 3477 3875 10849

Participating Nations

Sports

Panamerican Torch

Since the first Panamerican Games, a torch is lit in the same way as the Olympic Games (since 1924), Asian Games (since 1958) and All Africa Games (since 1965). In the first games in Buenos Aires 1951, the torch came from Olympia, Greece. Since the Mexico 1955 games, the torch is lit by Aztec people in old temples, first in the Sierra de la Estrella and after in the Temple of the Sun God in the Teotihuacán Pyramids. The only exception was São Paulo in 1963 when the torch was lit in Brasilia by the indigenous Guarani people.

External links


v • d • e
Pan American Games
Summer:
1951 | 1955 | 1959 | 1963 | 1967 | 1971 | 1975 | 1979 | 1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1995 | 1999 | 2003 | 2007 | 2011 | 2015
Winter:
Nations:
Could not update stat
UP