The XVI

Bolivarian Games The Bolivarian Games (Spanish: ''Juegos Bolivarianos'', full name ''Juegos Deportivos Bolivarianos'') are a regional multi-sport event held in honor of Simón Bolívar, and organized by the Bolivarian Sports Organization (''Organización Deporti ...

(Spanish: ''Juegos Bolivarianos'') were a

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

held in 2009 in

Sucre Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. The competitions in Sucre took place from 15–26 November. A number of Bolivian cities hosted some of the sporting events, including

Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...

, Santa Cruz and

Tarija Tarija or San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa is a city in southern Bolivia. Founded in 1574, Tarija is the largest city and capital and municipality within the Tarija Department, with an airport ( Capitán Oriel Lea Plaza Airport, (TJA)) of ...

. Also, events were held outside of Bolivia, with

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

and Salinas hosting a number of competitions. The Games were organized by the Bolivarian Sports Organization (

ODEBO Organización Deportiva Bolivariana (ODEBO; English: Bolivarian Sport Organization) is a sports organization based in South America. It organizes the Bolivarian Games. History The idea of creating a Bolivarian sports organization came to mind t ...

). The opening ceremony took place on November 14, 2009, at the Estadio Patria in

. The Games were officially opened by Bolivian president

Evo Morales Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come ...

. Torch lighter was swimmer Héctor Medina. The athlete's oath was sworn by sprinter Lupita Rojas.

Deficits in Organization and Criticism

A number of organizational deficits was reported. Initially, the games were scheduled between September 12–24, 2009. On July 1, 2009, the games were postponed to the new date because of "technical problems". The construction works on the sports facilities did not proceed fast enough. The infrastructure was not yet finished even when the games were already officially opened. Some sports like cycling and baseball had to be relocated to secondary venues like Cochabamba at short notice. Other sports like athletics, billiards, fencing, table tennis, taekwondo, or volleyball were experiencing problems because of the lack of equipment. Some sports like roller sports were cancelled completely. Weightlifting competitions had to start already on October 30, 2009, because the world championships would have been contemporaneously else. In equestrianism, the transfer of the horses to Bolivia could not be guaranteed. In shooting, the shotgun competitions (

Clay pigeon shooting Clay pigeon shooting, also known as clay target shooting, is a shooting sport involving shooting at shooting target#Clay pigeons, special flying targets known as "clay pigeons" or "clay targets" with a shotgun. Despite their name, the targets ...

) were relocated to Lima, Perú, because the equipment and munition did not arrive in time, and they were held until December 6, 2009, ten days after the official closing ceremony of the games. As a consequence, criticism emerged, and restructuring of the games as well as far-reaching reforms were requested to guarantee their future.

Venues

, hosted the following competitions: athletics (

Estadio Olímpico Patria Estadio Olímpico Patria is a multi-purpose stadium in Sucre, capital of Bolivia. It is currently used for football (soccer), football matches and is the home venue for Universitario de Sucre and Club Independiente Petrolero, Independiente Petrol ...

), basketball (Polideportivo Garcilazo), beach volleyball (Polideportivo Garcilazo), billiards (Salón Club de la Unión), boxing (Coliseo Universitario), BMX racing (Pista de Bicicross del Complejo Deportivo Garcilazo), mountain biking (Circuito Donwhill Sagrado Corazón de Jesús), diving (piscina de la zona de El Rollo),^† fencing (Polideportivo Complejo Patria), football ( Estadio Patria), futsal (Complejo Deportivo Garcilazo), artistic gymnastics (Coliseo "Max Toledo"), rhythmic gymnastics (Poligimnasio Max Toledo), karate (Estadio Edgar Cojintos), racquetball (Polideportivo Complejo Patria), roller speed skating road,^† roller speed skating track,^† swimming (piscina de la zona de El Rollo), table tennis (Coliseo Jorge Revilla), taekwondo (Coliseo de Combates Poligimnasio Max Toledo), tennis (Complejo Deportivo La Madona), volleyball (Coliseo Jorge Revilla Aldana), water polo (piscina de la zona de El Rollo),^† weightlifting (Coliseo Universitario), wrestling (Coliseo Cerrado “Edgar Cojinto”)
^†: Event initially scheduled, but cancelled at short notice.

: baseball (Estadio de Laguna Alalay), track cycling (Velódromo “Mariscal Santa Cruz”), road cycling, equestrianism (Country Club Cochabamba) Santa Cruz,

: bowling (Bolera: Cosmic Bowling), shooting (Polígono de Villa Victoria “Abraham Telchi”)

: canoeing (el embalse de San Jacinto), triathlon (Represa de San Jacinto)

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

: softball (Estadio Liga del Sur), water skiing (Samborondón Mocoli Island)^†
^†: Event initially scheduled, but cancelled at short notice.

: archery (Estadio de la Universidad Politécnica), squash (Concentración Deportiva de Pichinca) Salinas,

: sailing (Salinas Yacht Club), surfing

, La Punta,

Perú Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

: badminton (Club Regatas), judo (Coliseo de Basquetbol del Club Regatas Lima de Chorrillos), rowing (Yacht Club de la Punta), clay pigeon shooting (Polígono Quiñónez de la Base Aérea de Las Palmas)

Participation

About 2377 athletes from 6 countries were reported to participate: * (493) * (520) * (438) * (94) * (277) * (555)

Sports

In March 2009, three disciplines were already cancelled because the required minimum number of member federations was not reached, namely women's futsal, artistic roller skating, and waterskiing. Moreover, 91 events in 11 sports were cancelled at short notice, among them completely the diving, water polo, and roller speed skating competitions. The following 30 sports were explicitly mentioned: *

Aquatic sports The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

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Archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

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Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

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Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

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Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

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Billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

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Bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

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Boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

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Canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...

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Cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

BMX racing BMX racing is a type of bicycle racing which features BMX riders sharing a short single-lap circuit or point-to-point course, with multiple banked corners, jumps and rollers. The format of BMX was derived from motocross racing, and sanctione ...

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Mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

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Road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes recreational, racing, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same laws a ...

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Track cycling Track cycling is a Cycle sport, bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its i ...

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Equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

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Fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

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Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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Futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

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Gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

Artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), ...

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Rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform individually or in groups on a floor with an apparatus: hoop (rhythmic gymnastics), hoop, ball (rhythmic gymnastics), ball, Clubs (rhythmic gymnastics), clubs, ribbon (rhythmic gymnastics), ...

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Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

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Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

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Racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase vel ...

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Rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

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Sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...

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Shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missile ...

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Softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

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Squash Squash most often refers to: * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (plant), the fruit of vines of the genus ''Cucurbita'' Squash may also refer to: Sports * Squash (professional wrestling), an extr ...

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Surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

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Table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

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Taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

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Tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

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Triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

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Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

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Weightlifting Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

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Wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

() ^‡: The competition was reserved to youth representatives (U-17).

Medal count

The medal count for these Games is tabulated below. This table is sorted by the number of

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

s earned by each country. The number of

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

s is taken into consideration next, and then the number of

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

External links

Official website

Coverage of the Games by the Venezuelan Sports ministry (Ministerio del Poder Popular Para el Deporte)

References

{{BolivarianGames Bolivarian Games B

B Bolivar Multi-sport events in Bolivia Chuquisaca Department Sports competitions in Santa Cruz de la Sierra Sports competitions in Sucre History of Santa Cruz de la Sierra History of Sucre November 2009 sports events in South America