The Pan American Games are a multi-sport event, held every four years in the year before the summer Olympic Games and between competitors from all nations in the Americas. The last edition was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2007. The next will be in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011, followed by the 2015 games in Toronto, Canada.

History

The idea of holding a Pan American Games grew from the Central American Games which were first organized in the 1920s. In 1932, a first proposal was made for Pan American Games, and the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) 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, for certain sports on the program, such as swimming, the Pan American Games have lost status in the United States, and have not received much attention in the sporting press. The Americans had sent their "B" swimming team to Winnipeg in 1999, in contrast to the 1967 edition where they fielded many rising stars such as Mark Spitz. No major USA television network has covered the last 3 editions of the Games, while newspapers sent second-string reporters and the stories never made front page news. Many high profile athletes, of all nationalities, such as US champion sprinters and Brazilian football players, were in Europe during these Pan Ams, taking part in professional events. South American nations (with the exception of Uruguay) did not send their under-23 male soccer teams after the organizing committee refused to pay appearance money to CONMEBOL. 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. 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 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 September 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.

Editions

Year	Games	Host City	Country	Date	Athletes	Nations	Sports	Most Gold Medals
1951	I	Buenos Aires		February 25 - March 9 1951	2,513	21	18
1955	II	Mexico City		March 12 - March 26 1955	2,583	22	17
1959	III	Chicago		August 27 - September 7 1959	2,263	25	18
1963	IV	São Paulo		April 20 - May 5 1963	1,665	22	19
1967	V	Winnipeg		July 24 - August 6 1967	2,361	29	18
1971	VI	Cali		July 25 - August 8 1971	2,935	32	18
1975	VII	Mexico City		October 12 - October 25 1975	3,146	33	18
1979	VIII	San Juan		July 1 - July 15 1979	3,700	34	22
1983	IX	Caracas		August 14 - August 29 1983	3,426	36	23
1987	X	Indianapolis		August 7 - August 23 1987	4,453	38	27
1991	XI	Havana		August 8 - August 18 1991	4,519	39	26
1995	XII	Mar del Plata		March 11 - March 26 1995	5,144	42	34
1999	XIII	Winnipeg		July 23 - August 8 1999	5,083	42	34
2003	XIV	Santo Domingo		August 1 - August 17 2003	5,223	42	35
2007	XV	Rio de Janeiro		July 13 - July 29 2007	5,633	42	34
2011	XVI	Guadalajara		October 13 - October 30 2011
2015	XVII	Toronto		July 10 - July 26, 2015

Medals table

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

1		1747	1295	873	3915
2		781	531	481	1793
3		348	547	682	1577
4		258	279	363	900
5		239	283	401	923
6		157	217	409	783
7		73	156	224	453
8		57	109	162	328
9		37	70	108	215
10		21	72	113	206
11		21	33	59	113
12		19	43	85	147
13		14	13	36	63
14		11	22	42	75
15		8	17	25	50
16		7	12	29	48
17		6	11	9	26
18		5	28	58	91
19		4	9	16	29
20		4	6	10	20
21		4	2	5	11
22		3	20	24	47
23		2	4	11	17
24		1	6	12	19
25		1	4	3	8
26		1	0	3	4
27		0	4	5	9
28=		0	3	7	10
28=		0	3	7	10
30		0	3	0	3
31		0	2	5	7
32		0	1	6	7
33		0	1	4	5
34=		0	1	2	3
34=		0	1	2	3
36		0	1	1	2
37=		0	0	2	2
37=		0	0	2	2
39=		0	0	1	1
39=		0	0	1	1
41=		0	0	0	0
41=		0	0	0	0
Total		3496	3477	3875	10848

Participating Nations

Sports

Archery Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketball Beach volleyball Bowling Boxing Canoe/Kayak Cycling Diving Equestrian Fencing Futsal Football Gymnastics Hockey Handball Heptathlon Judo Karate Modern pentathlon

Polo Racquetball Rhythmic gymnastics Roller sports Rowing Rugby union Sailing Shooting Softball Squash Swimming Synchronized swimming Table tennis Taekwondo Tennis Trampoline Triathlon Volleyball Water polo Water skiing Weightlifting Wrestling

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.

See also

• Parapan American Games

References

External links

• ODEPA/PASO Official Website
• Rio 2007 Official Website
• Santo Domingo 2003 Website
• Pan American Games - Rio de Janeiro 2007
• Poster Images from the Pan American Games from 1951 to 1999
• Guadalajara 2011 Games
• Toronto 2015 Games
• Bogota 2015 Games