Sports Included At Pan American Games

The last Pan American Games that were held in 2015 in Toronto included 36 sports with 51 disciplines which is the biggest number of sports that any Pan American games had since the first Pan American games that were held in Buenos Aires back in 1951. There are several criteria that are taken into consideration when determining what sport will be the part of the Pan American Games.

The first criterion is whether the given sport is included in the program of the Summer Olympic Games. If the given sport is not part of the Olympic Games then the Pan American Sports Committee researches whether the sport is popular in the Americas. If they are sufficient number of countries in which the sport is popular there is a big possibility that that sport will be included in the program of the Pan American Games. This article will present the list of sports that were part of the Pan American Games for some time now.

Aquatics

aquaticsThe classification of sports and discipline is slightly different in Pan American Games than in some other competitions. In Pan American Games, sport is characterized as a group of different disciplines that have the some kind of international governing body through which that sport is represent in the international sports organizations. Such situation appeared in the Aquatics sports competitions.

At Pan American games, aquatics included swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. It must also be mentioned that swimming is one of the several sports that have never been absent from the Pan American Games since their introduction back in 1951. Some of the biggest names that participated in the swimming competitions at the Pan American Games are Bruno Fratus from Brazil, Ryan Cochrane from Canada, Allison Schmitt from the United States, Natalie Coughlin also from the United States.

If we look at the number of medals in the last Pan American Games we can see that the United States have won the biggest number of medals and that is 32 (12 gold, 10 silver, 10 bronze) followed by Brazil with 26 medals and Canada with 28 medals.

Basketball

basketballBasketball is also one of the most popular sports that are part of the Pan American Games. The first time that basketball was included in the program of the Pan American Games was back in 1951 in the first Pan American Games and from then basketball has been part of every Pan American Games.

Basketball tournament of the 2015 Pan American Games was divided into two categories, men and women. In men’s tournament, the final game was played between Brazil and Canada and Brazil managed to win gold medal. The United States won the bronze medal in 2015 Pan American Games. In the women’s basketball tournament of the 2015 Pan American Games, Canada won gold medal, the United States won silver medal and Cuba won bronze medal.

Tennis

tennisTennis is part of the Pan American Games since the first Pan American Games that were held back in 1951. The only time tennis was not part of the Pan American Games was back in 1971. Since then tennis was one of the most popular sports in every Pan American Games. In the tennis tournament of the Pan American Games, the United States managed to win 61 medals throughout history (26 gold, 13 silver and 22 bronze medal) followed by Argentina with 39 and Mexico with 50 medals. Although tennis tournament did not included some of the world’s top players, the tournament was still very interesting and fans were able to see many names that later had real success in professional tennis.

Other Sports

The list of sports that were included throughout the history in the Pan American Games is really big. That list includes sports like fencing, boxing, equestrian, football, rowing, wrestling, football, shooting, water polo, and weightlifting. All of these sports have been part of the Pan American Games since the Pan American Games were introduced and held for the first time in Buenos Aires.

During the later Pan American games, several other sports also were introduced into the program of the Pan American Games. Some of those sports are rugby sevens, volleyball and handball. The next Pan American Games will add another sport on the list of sports that will be part of the 2019 Pan American Games and that is surfing.