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.
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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 were attended mainly by second-string American athletes and were not covered by any news anchors or television from the major U.S. broadcast networks, although a one-hour highlights package aired on ESPN after the games. 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.
There have been attempts to hold Pan American Winter Games as well, but these have been without much success. The planned 1989 edition had to be postponed until a year later due to bad weather conditions, and even then only the alpine events could be held. The edition for 1993 was cancelled completely, and the Pan American Winter Games have not been held since.There have been periodic attempts to establish winter Pan American Games. In fact, the organizers of the 1951 Pan American Games in Buenos Aires planned to stage winter events later in the but dropped the idea for lack of interest.
Lake Placid, New York, tried to organize Winter Games in 1959, but again not enough Pan American countries expressed interest and the plans were cancelled.
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 sking events, the slalom, giant slalom, and Super G, were staged. The U. S. and Canada combined to win all 18 medals.
Undeterred, PASO awarded the 2nd Pan American Winter Games to Santiago, Chile for 1993. The United States warned that it wouldn't take part unless a full schedule of events was held. The Santiago organizing committee eventually gave up and the idea hasn't been revived since then
[edit] Locations of Pan American Games
[edit] Medals table
The table below gives an overview of the all-time medal count of the Pan American Games.
[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, Asian Games and All Africa Games does. In the first game in Buenos Aires 1951, the torch came from Olympia Greece. Since Mexico 55, the torch is lit by Aztecan People in old temples, first in Serra da Estrella and afterin the Temple of the Sun God in Teotihuacán Pyramids. Th only exception was Sao Paulo 63 whe the torch was lit in Brasilia by Guarani indigiens
[edit] See also
- Parapan American Games
- Winter Pan American Games
- Panamerican Torch
- 2011 Pan American Games
[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
| Pan American Games |
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| 1951 | 1955 | 1959 | 1963 | 1967 | 1971 | 1975 | 1979 | 1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1995 | 1999 | 2003 | 2007 | 2011 |2015 |
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