The 2023 Pan American Games (Spanish: Juegos Panamericanos de 2023), officially the XIX Pan American Games and commonly known as Santiago 2023, were an international multi-sport event governed by the Panam Sports Organization, held in Santiago, Chile from October 20 to November 5, 2023; preliminary rounds in certain events began on October 18, 2023. These are the first Pan American Games to be held in Chile, and the eighth to be held in South America.
The games were held in 39 venues across the Santiago Metropolitan Region and another three regions of Chile. The Pan American Games and the 2023 Parapan American Games were organized by the Santiago Organizing Committee for the 2023 Pan and Parapan American Games.
Santiago was unanimously acclaimed as the host city at the ANOC General Assembly in Prague on November 4, 2017.[3] This will mark the first time Chile hosts the Pan American Games. Santiago was initially awarded the right to host the 1975 and later 1987 Pan American Games, but withdrew as host both times due to financial and political problems.[4] Most recently, Santiago was a candidate for the 2019 Pan American Games but lost to Lima.[3]
The budget for the games is $507 million USD, with $170 million reserved for the building of ten new sporting venues and the upgrade of six arenas.[5] The budget is about 36% of what was spent for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada and 50% of the last Pan American Games in 2019, in Lima, Peru.[6]
Various venues across Santiago and various other cities will be used for the games, including Viña del Mar, Valparaíso and Algarrobo.[7] In March 2022, the first venue for the games was officially inaugurated: the field hockey stadium on the National Stadium Grounds.[8]
In June 2022, organizers revealed the final venue plan consisting of 41 competition venues. 39 were used for the Games, with the other two being used exclusively for the 2023 Parapan American Games.[9] The venues span four regions of the country: Santiago, Valparaíso, O'Higgins and Biobío.[10]
Athletes Village
In December 2021, a ceremony was held to lay the first brick for the village. The village is expected to cost approximately $100 million USD, and will consist of 1,345 apartments.[11] After the games, the village will be converted to social housing. The village is being built in the Cerrillos Bicentennial Park community of Santiago.[12]
Torch relay
The Pan American Flame was lit at the Pyramid of the Moon in the pre-Hispanic Mexican city of Teotihuacan, and the torch relay began on 5 October 2023 and ended at the opening ceremony with the lighting of the cauldron. There were three torches, with each torch travelling to different areas of Santiago and Chile.[13][14]
The opening ceremony was held during the evening of 20 October at Estadio Nacional. The ceremony consisted of a cultural display showcasing all of Chile's diversity. The games were opened by President Gabriel Boric, with IOC President Thomas Bach and Panam Sports President Neven Ilic also attending the ceremony. Musical performances included Colombian singer Sebastián Yatra. The cauldron was lit by 1951 Pan American Games silver medalist Lucy Lopez, and the only two Chilean Olympic gold medalists, Nicolás Massú and Fernando González.[15]
The closing ceremony was held on the evening of 5 November at Estadio Bicentenario de La Florida. Among cultural demonstrations, the Panam Sports flag was handed over by Chilean president Gabriel Boric to officials representing Barranquilla and the Caribbean region of Colombia as the former host city of the 2027 Pan American Games, followed by a segment to present the next host city. The games were declared closed by Panam Sports President Neven Ilic. The cultural segment was headlined by local artist Joe Vasconcellos and American-Dominican singer Prince Royce.[16][17]
Participating National Olympic Committees
40 National Olympic Committees who are members of the Pan American Sports Organization competed at the games.The 41st National Olympic Committee would be Guatemala, which however had its NOC suspended and its athletes competed as PASO Individual Athletes. This total number does not include the numbers of athletes registered for e-Sports which will be a sport of demonstration.
A total of 425 events in 39 sports were contested at the 2023 Pan American Games: breaking, skateboarding (as a discipline of roller sports), and sport climbing made their Pan-Am Games debut, while bodybuilding was dropped after its debut in 2019.[50][51][52][53] Men's and women's team Kyorugi events were also added in taekwondo.[54] Other new event disciplines included synchronized trampoline in gymnastics, the 1,000 meter sprint in roller speed skating and the mixed eights event in rowing. Meanwhile the mixed team event in golf was dropped for this edition and weightlifting events were reduced by four (to mirror the 2024 Olympics program).[citation needed]
Panam Sports announced an initial program of 33 sports in March 2020, consisting of the 28 "core" sports that will be contested at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, along with baseball/softball, karate, roller sports (artistic, speed, and skateboarding), surfing, and water skiing. Panam Sports did not rule out the addition of further sports, provided that they did not increase the infrastructural costs of the Games.[51] In December 2020, basque pelota, bowling, racquetball, squash, and sport climbing were added to the program, expanding it to 38 sports.[50] On June 24, 2022, breakdancing (breaking) was added to the program as its 39th sport, serving as a qualifier for its Olympic debut at Paris 2024.[52]
Esports was included as the sport for demonstration, and thus athletes competing on it were not registered and didn't receive any medal related to the Games. It was considered as a benchmark development and would stage ground for the future inclusion of esports into the Games.[55]
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events to be contested in each sport/discipline.
See also: 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games broadcasting rights
In February 2022, Mediapro reached an agreement to serve as host broadcaster of Santiago 2023; for the first time, every event held across the Pan-American and Parapan American Games will be televised, nearly doubling the hours of coverage that will be available to rightsholders in comparison to 2019.[56] In September 2022, the country's public broadcaster Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) reached an agreement to serve as the domestic broadcaster of the Games.[57] In early-2023, the commercial networks Canal 13 and Chilevisión also acquired rights to the Games.[58][59]
The emblem of the 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games was unveiled on July 17, 2019.[60] The new slogan of the Games: "Our Meeting Point" (Spanish: Nuestro Punto de Encuentro) was presented in 2023.[61]
An online poll was held in August 2021 to determine the mascot of the 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games. Five candidates were presented, based on plants and wildlife native to Chile. On October 16, 2021, Fiu—a many-colored rush tyrant—was announced as the winner of the vote. Its design is described as reflecting the "diversity of human beings and especially athletes", and symbolizing that "being small does not mean you cannot give it your best effort".[62][63]
Sponsorships
Multiple companies helped sponsor the 2023 Pan American Games.
The women's 20 kilometres walk was marked by controversy as the official distance was short of 20 kilometres. Kimberly Garcia of Peru had originally won the event in a time of 1:12.26, more than nine minutes below the world record.[65] Organizers realized the course was short after the event had been completed.[65] Athletes believed the course was approximately three kilometers short, with the winner Garcia noticing the distance and time were not matching after the first kilometre.[66] Due to the error, the times were erased and athletes could not receive world ranking points towards qualification for the 2024 Summer Olympics.[65] The organizing committee blamed the error on the Association of Panamerican Athletics and the person who they hired to accurately measure the course.[67] The executive director of the Games, Harold Mayne-Nicholls, felt that the incident was an embarrassment.[67]
^Russell Jr, Seaford (October 19, 2023). "Athletes set for PanAm Games in Chile". Cayman Compass. George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
^Romeo, Desney (October 18, 2023). "Suriname klaar voor deelname aan Pan-American Games" [Suriname ready to participate in Pan-American Games]. Sun Nieuws (in Dutch). Paramaribo, Suriname. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
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