Mediterranean Games

Mediterranean Games
Official logo of the Games
Games
1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2018 2022

The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The first Mediterranean Games were held in 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt, while the following games are scheduled to be held in 2022 in Oran, Algeria.

History[]

The idea was proposed at the 1948 Summer Olympics by Muhammed Taher Pasha, chairman of the Egyptian Olympic Committee and vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.), assisted by the Greek member of the I.O.C. .^[1] Separate Mediterranean sports events preceded the games. From 1947 to 1949, the Mediterranean Athletics Championships were contested,^[2][3] and the Mediterranean Cup football competition was held in 1949 and 1950.^[4] The first official Mediterranean Games were held in Egypt in 1951.

The Games were inaugurated in October 1951, in Alexandria, Egypt, in honour of Muhammed Taher Pasha, with contests being held in 13 sports along with the participation of 734 athletes from 10 countries. In 1955, in Barcelona, during the II Games, the set up was decided of a Supervisory and Controlling Body for the Games, a kind of Executive Committee. The decisions were finally materialized on 16 June 1961, and the said Body was named, upon a Greek notion, ICMG (International Committee for the Mediterranean Games). Twelve countries were hosted for Mediterranean Games - four from Africa: Egypt (1951), Tunisia (1967, 2001), Algeria (1975) and Morocco (1983); six from Europe: Spain (1955, 2005, 2018), Italy (1963, 1997, 2009), Turkey (1971, 2013), Yugoslavia (1979), Greece (1991) and France (1993) and two from Asia: Lebanon (1959) and Syria (1987).

The first 11 games took place always one year preceding the Summer Olympic Games. However, from 1993 on, they were held the year following the Olympic games. This transition meant that the only time the Mediterranean Games were not held four years after the previous Games was in 1993, when Languedoc-Roussillon in France hosted the Games just two years after Athens.

Description[]

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The Mediterranean Games, in terms of the preparation and composition of the National Delegation, are held under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee and the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC). However, their establishment too must be credited to the HOC, for it held a leading part in their being founded despite all difficulties.

Athens is the permanent seat of the ICMG (regardless of who the President might be) and the committee's General Secretary is Greek. This comes as a further tribute to Greece, highlighting its leading role with regard to the function and strengthening of the institution. Except that Greece bailed out of its 2013 Mediterranean Games commitment when the two cities of Volos and Larissa were supposed to host the 2013 edition of the Games. But because of Greece's financial troubles, they had to give that up and the 2013 honors went instead to Turkey, with the city of Mersin rescuing the 2013 edition of the Games instead.

The logo of the games, also referred to as the "Mediterranean Olympics", is composed of three white rings symbolically representing Africa, Asia, and Europe — the three continents that border the Mediterranean Sea. This logo has been used since the Split games in 1979, for which it was devised and afterwards accepted for the whole Games. During the closing ceremony, the flag of the games is transferred to the country of the city chosen for the organization of the next Mediterranean Games.

Participating countries[]

Participating countries

At present, 26 countries participate in the games:^[5]

• Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia
• Asia: Lebanon and Syria.
• Europe: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey.

Kosovo was accepted as a member of the International Committee of Mediterranean Games in October 2015 and participated for the first time in the 2018 Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain.^[6]

Of all the National Olympic Committees within the Olympic Movement bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Palestine have not participated in the games, nor has Great Britain who represents the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.

In the case of Israel, Allen Guttman in The Games Must Go On argued that Israel's exclusion is both antisemitic and politically motivated due to antagonism towards Israel by the participating Arab nations. The IOC's Avery Brundage was not supportive of Israel's desire to compete, saying: "I cannot understand why anyone wants to go where he is not wanted". The International Amateur Athletics Federation pushed the issue at the 1959 Mediterranean Games in Beirut by refusing to grant permission to hold an athletics competition unless Israel were allowed to compete. Lebanese games organizer Gabriel Gemayel conceded to this, but sidestepped the ruling by holding a parallel Lebanese Games comprising athletics events between the present nations alongside the official Mediterranean Games competitions.^[7]

There are countries not bordering the Mediterranean Sea which nonetheless participate: Portugal, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Serbia and North Macedonia.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee has suggested that nine more countries that do not satisfy geographic criteria could be allowed to participate, such as Bulgaria, and some Arab countries such as Jordan and Iraq.^{[citation needed]} Portugal competed in the 2018 Mediterranean Games after a decision which approved Portugal as effective National Olympic Committee.^[8][9]

Flag[]

The symbol of the Mediterranean Games consists of three rings representing Asia, Africa and Europe, the three continents involved in this competition.^[10] The rings dissolve in a wavy line in their lower part, as if they were immersed in the Mediterranean Sea. During the closing ceremony, the flag is transferred to the country of the city chosen to host the next Mediterranean Games.^[10]

Mediterranean Games[]

No inland city has ever hosted the games. All but one of the host cities to date have been situated on the Mediterranean coast (Casablanca is located on the Atlantic coast).

Cities that have hosted the Games

No	Year	Host City	Opened by	Nations	Competitors			Sports	Events	Top Country On Medal Table
					Men	Women	Total
1	1951	Alexandria	Farouk I	10	734	---	734	14	91	Italy
2	1955	Barcelona	Francisco Franco	10	1135	---	1135	20	102	France
3	1959	Beirut	Fuad Chehab	11	792	---	792	17	106
4	1963	Naples	Antonio Segni	13	1057	---	1057	17	93	Italy
5	1967	Tunis	Habib Bourguiba	12	1211	38	1249	14	93	Italy
6	1971	İzmir	Cevdet Sunay	14	1235	127	1362	18	137	Italy
7	1975	Algiers	Houari Boumédiène	15	2095	349	2444	19	160	Italy
8	1979	Split	Josip Broz Tito	14	2009	399	2408	26	192	Yugoslavia
9	1983	Casablanca	Hassan II	16	1845	335	2180	20	162	Italy
10	1987	Latakia	Hafez al-Assad	18	1529	467	1996	19	162	Italy
11	1991	Athens	Konstantinos Karamanlis	18	2176	586	2762	24	217	Italy
12	1993	Languedoc-Roussillon	François Mitterrand	20	1994	604	2598	24	217
13	1997	Bari	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro	21	2195	804	2999	27	234	Italy
14	2001	Tunis	Zine El Abidine Ben Ali	23[11]	2002	1039	3041	23	230
15	2005	Almería	Juan Carlos I	21	2134	1080	3214	27	258	Italy
16	2009	Pescara	Renato Schifani	23	2183	1185	3368	28	244	Italy
17	2013	Mersin	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	24	1994	1070	3064	27	264	Italy
18	2018	Tarragona	Felipe VI	26	2656	1885	4541	28	246	Italy
19	2022	Oran	Abdelmadjid Tebboune (expected)	26	Future Event
20	2026	Taranto	TBD	Future Event

Notes

All-time medal table[]

Rank	Team	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Italy	876	740	687	2303[12]
2	France	631	576	533	1740[12]
3	Turkey	339	243	278	860[12]
4	Spain	329	449	544	1322[12]
5	Yugoslavia*	199	177	182	558[12]
6	Greece	192	247	339	778[12]
7	Egypt	142	194	231	567[12]
8	Tunisia	83	93	146	322[12]
9		69	77	99	245[12]
10	Algeria	66	59	115	240[12]
11	Croatia	51	62	69	182[12]
12	Slovenia	49	56	90	195[12]
13	Serbia*	49	53	75	177[12]
14	Syria	28	39	76	143[12]
15		23	21	30	74[12]
16	Cyprus	14	19	18	51[12]
17	Lebanon	10	23	42	75[12]
18	Albania	9	18	17	44[12]
19	Bosnia and Herzegovina	4	8	19	31[12]
20	San Marino	3	9	5	17[12]
21		3	8	13	24[12]
22	Montenegro	3	5	8	16[12]
23	Kosovo	3	1	0	4[12]
24		2	2	7	11[12]
25		2	1	13	16[12]
26	Malta	1	3	4	8[12]
27	Monaco	0	3	1	4[12]
Total		2686	2686	3023	8395

• Yugoslavia competed in 1997 and 2001 as FR Yugoslavia.^[13]
• Serbia competed in 2005 as Serbia and Montenegro.

Competitions[]

Throughout the history of the Mediterranean Games, 33 different sports have been presented.

Sport Years Since 1971 Athletics Since 1951 Since 2013 Basketball Since 1951 Beach volleyball Since 2005 Bocce Since 1997 Boxing Since 1951 Since 1979 Cycling Since 1955 Since 1951 Since 1955

Sport Years Fencing Since 1951 Since 1955 Football Since 1951 Golf Since 1983 Gymnastics Since 1951 Handball Since 1967 Judo Since 1971 Karate Since 1993 Roller hockey Since 1955 Since 1951 Rugby union Since 1955

Sport Years Sailing Since 1955 Since 1951 Swimming Since 1951 Since 1971 Since 2013 Tennis Since 1963 Volleyball Since 1959 Water polo Since 1951 Since 2009 Weightlifting Since 1951 Wrestling Since 1951

See also[]

• Mediterranean Beach Games

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mediterranean Games.

• cijm.org – International Mediterranean Games Committee