Pan American Games
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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.
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[edit] 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.
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. It is expected that the games will improve infrastructure in the city and lay the foundations for a possible bid for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
[edit] 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 Lenas, Argentina in September of 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.
[edit] Locations of Pan American Games
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[edit] 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 |  Dominican Republic |
19 | 43 | 85 | 147 |
| 12 |  Jamaica |
21 | 33 | 59 | 113 |
| 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 |  Cayman Islands |
0 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| 29 |  Barbados |
0 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
 Nicaragua |
0 | 3 | 7 | 10 | |
| 31 |  Haiti |
0 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 32 |  Paraguay |
0 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| 33 |  Honduras |
1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 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 |  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Aruba |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 40 |  British Virgin Islands |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
 Saint Kitts and Nevis |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3497 | 3477 | 3875 | 10849 |
[edit] Participating Nations
[edit] Sports
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[edit] Panamerican Torch
Since the first Panamerican Games, a torch is lit the same way as the Olympic Games (since 1924), Asian Games (since 1958) and All Africa Games (since 1965) does. 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 Serra da Estrella and after in the Temple of the Sun God in Teotihuacán Pyramids. The only exception was Sao Paulo in 1963 whe the torch was lit in Brasilia by Guarani indigiens.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Rio 2007 Official Website
- Santo Domingo 2003 Official Website
- Pan American Games - Rio de Janeiro 2007
- Poster Images from the Pan American Games from 1951 to 1999
- Guadalajara 2011 Games
- ODEPA/PASO Official Website
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