The 2023 Pan American Games (), officially the XIX Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santiago 2023, were an international

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 ...

governed by the

Panam Sports Panam Sports, officially the Pan American Sports Organization (), is an international organization which represents the current 41 National Olympic Committees of the American continents. It is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee ...

Organization, held in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

from 20 October to 5 November 2023; preliminary rounds in certain events began on 18 October 2023. These are the first Pan American Games to be held in Chile, and the eighth to be held in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The games were held in 39 venues across the

Santiago Metropolitan Region Santiago Metropolitan Region () is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions. It is the country's only landlocked administrative region and contains the nation's capital, Santiago. Most commercial and administrative centers are loc ...

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.

Bidding process

Two bids were submitted for the 2023 Pan American Games.

and

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

both submitted bids. On 1 February 2017, the

Pan American Sports Organization Panam Sports, officially the Pan American Sports Organization (), is an international organization which represents the current 41 National Olympic Committees of the American continents. It is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee ...

(now

) announced the two cities as the official bids. Buenos Aires withdrew their bid in April 2017 due to not having the necessary finances or logistics to host this event and the

2018 Summer Youth Olympics The 2018 Summer Youth Olympics (), officially known as the III Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Buenos Aires 2018, were an international multi-sport event, sports, cultural, and educational event held from 6 to 18 October 2018 ...

Host city election

Santiago was unanimously acclaimed as the host city at the ANOC General Assembly in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

on 4 November 2017. This will mark the first time Chile hosts the Pan American Games. Santiago was initially awarded the right to host the

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

and later

1987 Pan American Games The 1987 Pan American Games, officially known as the X Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event held in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, on August 7–23, 1987. Over 4,300 athletes from 38 countries in the Americas ...

, but withdrew as host both times due to financial and political problems. Most recently, Santiago was a candidate for the

2019 Pan American Games The 2019 Pan American Games (), officially the XVIII Pan American Games () and commonly known as Lima 2019, were a multi-sport event governed by the Panam Sports Organization held in Lima, Peru from July 26 to August 11, 2019, with preliminar ...

but lost to

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 ...

Development and preparation

Financing

The budget for the games is $507 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

, with $170 million reserved for the building of ten new sporting venues and the upgrade of six arenas. The budget is about 36% of what was spent for the

2015 Pan American Games The 2015 Pan American Games (), officially the XVII Pan American Games () and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games (Toronto 2015), were a major international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Pan American Games, ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada and 50% of the last Pan American Games in 2019, in

, Peru.

Venues

Estadio Nacional de Chile - vista desde Av

Various venues across Santiago and various other cities will be used for the games, including

Viña del Mar Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune on Zona Central, Chile, central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located withi ...

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

and Algarrobo. In March 2022, the first venue for the games was officially inaugurated: the field hockey stadium on the National Stadium Grounds. 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. The venues span four regions of the country:

, O'Higgins and Biobío.

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

, and will consist of 1,345 apartments. After the games, the village will be converted to

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

. The village is being built in the Cerrillos Bicentennial Park community of Santiago.

Torch relay

The Pan American Flame was lit at the Pyramid of the Moon in the pre-Hispanic Mexican city of

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is ...

, 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.

The Games

Ceremonies

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 Gabriel Boric Font (; born 11 February 1986) is a Chilean politician and the President of Chile since 2022. He previously served two four-year terms as a deputy in the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, Chamber of Deputies. Boric first gained prom ...

, with IOC President

Thomas Bach Thomas Bach (born 29 December 1953) is a German lawyer, former foil fencer, and Olympic gold medalist. He has served as the ninth president of the International Olympic Committee since 2013, the first ever Olympic champion to be elected to tha ...

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 The 1951 Pan American Games, officially known as I Pan American Games () and commonly known as Buenos Aires 1951, were held in Buenos Aires, Argentina between February 25 and March 9, 1951. The Pan American Games' origins were at the Games of the ...

silver medalist Lucy Lopez, and the only two Chilean Olympic gold medalists,

Nicolás Massú Nicolás Alejandro Massú Fried (; born 10 October 1979), nicknamed ''El Vampiro'' (Spanish, 'the vampire'), is a Chilean tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ...

and

Fernando González Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (; born 29 July 1980) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career, he reached at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major tournaments. He contested hi ...

. 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 Barranquilla () is the capital district of the Atlántico department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean region of Colombia, Caribbean coast region; as of 2018, it had a popul ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

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 Geoffrey Royce Rojas (born May 11, 1989), known professionally as Prince Royce, is an American singer. At an early age, Royce took an interest in music, and in his teenage years began experimenting with music and writing poetry. By age nineteen ...

Participating National Olympic Committees

National Olympic Committees A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

who are members of the

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. 2015 Pan American Games Participating Countries

2015 Pan American Games Participating Countries

Sports

A total of 425 events in 39 sports were contested at the 2023 Pan American Games: breaking,

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

(as a discipline of roller sports), and

sport climbing Sport climbing (or bolted climbing) is a type of free climbing in the sport of rock climbing where the Lead climbing, lead climber clips their climbing rope, rope — via a quickdraw — into pre-drilled in-situ bolt (climbing), bolts for their ...

made their Pan-Am Games debut, while

bodybuilding Bodybuilding is the practice of Resistance training, progressive resistance exercise to build, control, and develop one's skeletal muscle, muscles via muscle hypertrophy, hypertrophy. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to a ...

was dropped after its debut in 2019. Men's and women's team Kyorugi events were also added in taekwondo. 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). 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 The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

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. In December 2020, basque pelota, bowling, racquetball, squash, and sport climbing were added to the program, expanding it to 38 sports. On 24 June 2022, breakdancing (breaking) was added to the program as its 39th sport, serving as a qualifier for its Olympic debut at Paris 2024.

Esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

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 Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

into the Games. ''Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events to be contested in each sport/discipline.'' *

Aquatics Aquatics may refer to: *Aquatic sports in the Olympics and other international competitions, including the disciplines of swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, and open water swimming *Water-related sports more broadly (including boa ...

** ** ** ** ** * * * *Baseball ** ** * ** ** * * * * * ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** * * * * * ** ** ** * * * * * * ** ** ** * * * * * * * * * * * *

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 ...

** ** * ** ** * * ** **

Calendar

Medal table

;Key Medals used in the games

Media

In February 2022,

Mediapro Mediaproducción, S.L.U., better known as Mediapro, is a multimedia communications group in Spain founded in April 1994 in Barcelona. The company is well involved in movie and television production. The company holds branch offices in Madrid, S ...

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 The Parapan American Games is an international multi-sport event for athletes with physical disabilities held every four years after every Pan American Games. The first Games were held in 1999 in Mexico City, Mexico. The 2003 Parapan American Ga ...

will be televised, nearly doubling the hours of coverage that will be available to rightsholders in comparison to 2019. In September 2022, the country's public broadcaster

Televisión Nacional de Chile Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) is a Chilean Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It was founded by order of President Eduardo Frei Montalva and it was launched nationwide on 18 September 1969. Since then, the company has been re ...

(TVN) reached an agreement to serve as the domestic broadcaster of the Games. In early-2023, the commercial networks Canal 13 and

Chilevisión Chilevisión (often abbreviated as CHV) is a Chilean free-to-air television channel. It is the third oldest Chilean television network, owned by Paramount Networks Americas, being founded by the University of Chile on November 4, 1960. Hist ...

also acquired rights to the Games.

Marketing

The emblem of the 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games was unveiled on 17 July 2019. The new slogan of the Games: "Our Meeting Point" () was presented in 2023. 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 16 October 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".

Sponsorships

Multiple companies helped sponsor the 2023 Pan American Games. ;Official sponsor * Antofagasta Minerals * BancoEstado *

LATAM Airlines Group LATAM Airlines Group S.A. is a Chile, Chilean multinational airline holding company headquartered in Santiago, Santiago, Chile. It is considered the largest airline company in Latin America with subsidiaries in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Par ...

Mitsubishi Motors is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.

;Official providers * ADN * Cachantun *

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

Chile * PF Alimentos * Molten * Ottobock *

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

* Copec ;Proud supporters *

Michelob Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in othe ...

* Casillero del Diablo * Astara ;Governmental partners * Senadis * Marca Chile * Sernatur * ProChile

Concerns and controversies

The women's 20 kilometres walk was marked by controversy as the official distance was short of 20 kilometres. Kimberly García of

Peru 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 ...

had originally won the event in a time of 1:12.26, more than nine minutes below the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

. Organizers realized the course was short after the event had been completed. 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. Due to the error, the times were erased and athletes could not receive world ranking points towards qualification for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The organizing committee blamed the error on the

Association of Panamerican Athletics The Association of Panamerican Athletics (APA; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Asociación Panamericana de Atletismo'') is a new regional confederation governing body of athletics for national governing bodies and multi-national federations within No ...

and the person who they hired to accurately measure the course. The executive director of the Games, Harold Mayne-Nicholls, felt that the incident was an embarrassment.

References

External links

*
Official diplomas website

Official results website

Pan American Sports Organization website
{{Pan American Games 2023 Pan American Games

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

Pan American Games International sports competitions hosted by Chile Multi-sport events in Chile Sports competitions in Santiago, Chile 2023 in Chile 2023 in South American sport