Mediterranean Games

Mediterranean Games
First event	1951 Mediterranean Games in Alexandria, Egypt
Occur every	Four years
Last event	2022 Mediterranean Games in Oran, Algeria
Next event	2026 Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy
Purpose	Multi-sport event for nations on the Mediterranean Sea
President	Mehrez Boussayene (Acting)
Website	www.cijm.org.gr

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 most recent games were 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 Greek member of the I.O.C. Ioannis Ketseas.^[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 and 734 athletes from 10 countries participating. During the II Games, held in 1955 in Barcelona, a Supervisory and Controlling Body for the Games was established to function as a kind of executive committee. The decisions were finally materialized on 16 June 1961, and the said Body was named, upon a Greek notion, the ICMG (International Committee for the Mediterranean Games). Twelve countries have hosted the Mediterranean Games, including four from Africa: Egypt (1951), Tunisia (1967, 2001), Algeria (1975, 2022) 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 eleven games took place one year before the nearest Summer Olympic Games. Since 1993, the games have been held the year after the Olympic Games. This transition means 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 in 1991. In 2018, the Mediterranean Games calendar was reset again when Tarragona hosted the games in the mid-even year between the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympic Games (and in the same year as the 2018 FIFA Men's World Cup).

Description

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).

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. Greece bailed out of its 2013 Mediterranean Games commitment due to financial troubles, when the two cities of Volos and Larissa were supposed to host the 2013 edition of the games. The 2013 honors went to Turkey, with the city of Mersin hosting the games instead.

Participating countries

At present, 26 countries participate in the Mediterranean 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] One athlete representing the Vatican City participated in an unofficial ("non-scoring") manner in the women's half marathon event at the 2022 Mediterranean Games in Oran, Algeria.^[7]

Of all the National Olympic Committees within the Olympic Movement bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Palestine have not participated in the Mediterranean Games, nor has Great Britain, which represents the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

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 Muslim and Arab nations. IOC President 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 was 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.^[8] In September 2023, European Olympic Committees president Spyros Capralos called on the International Committee of Mediterranean Games to open a discussion about admitting both Israel and Palestine as members.^[9]

There are countries not bordering the Mediterranean Sea which nonetheless participate: Portugal, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Serbia and North Macedonia. Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia were all formerly part of Yugoslavia, which competed until its breakup and dissolution in 1992.^{[citation needed]}

The Hellenic Olympic Committee has suggested that nine more countries that do not satisfy the geographic criteria could be allowed to participate, such as Bulgaria and Jordan.^{[citation needed]} Portugal competed in the 2018 Mediterranean Games after a decision which approved Portugal as an effective National Olympic Committee.^[10]^[11]

Flag

The symbol of the Mediterranean Games consists of three rings representing Asia, Africa and Europe, the three continents involved in this competition.^[12] The rings dissolve in a wavy line in their lower part, as if they were immersed in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. During the closing ceremony, the flag is transferred to the country of the city chosen to host the next edition of the Mediterranean Games.^[12]

Editions

All host cities have been coastal and all but one on the Mediterranean coast (Casablanca is on the Atlantic coast). When Pristina hosts in 2030, it will be the first host city to not be coastal.

Cities that have hosted the Mediterranean Games ^{[needs update]}

No	Year	Host City	Dates	Opened by	Nations	Competitors			Sports	Events	Top Country On Medal Table
No	Year	Host City	Dates	Opened by	Nations	Men	Women	Total	Sports	Events	Top Country On Medal Table
1	1951	Alexandria	5 – 20 October	Farouk I	10	734	N/a	734	14	91	Italy
2	1955	Barcelona	15 – 25 July	Francisco Franco	10	1,135	N/a	1,135	20	102	France
3	1,959	Beirut	11 – 23 October	Fuad Chehab	11	792	N/a	792	17	106	France
4	1963	Naples	21 – 29 September	Antonio Segni	13	1,057	N/a	1,057	17	93	Italy
5	1967	Tunis	8 – 17 September	Habib Bourguiba	12	1,211	38	1,249	14	93	Italy
6	1971	İzmir	6 – 17 October	Cevdet Sunay	14	1,235	127	1,362	18	137	Italy
7	1975	Algiers	23 August – 6 September	Houari Boumédiène	15	2,095	349	2,444	19	160	Italy
8	1979	Split	15 – 29 September	Josip Broz Tito	14	2,009	399	2,408	26	192	Yugoslavia
9	1983	Casablanca	3 – 17 September	Hassan II	16	1,845	335	2,180	20	162	Italy
10	1987	Latakia	11 – 25 September	Hafez al-Assad	18	1,529	467	1,996	19	162	Italy
11	1991	Athens	28 June – 12 July	Konstantinos Karamanlis	18	2,176	586	2,762	24	217	Italy
12	1993	Languedoc-Roussillon	16 – 27 June	François Mitterrand	19	1,994	604	2,598	24	217	France
13	1997	Bari	13 – 25 June	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro	21	2,166	790	2,956	27	234	Italy
14	2001	Tunis	2 – 15 September	Zine El Abidine Ben Ali	23^[13]	1,972	1,019	2,991	23	230	France
15	2005	Almería	24 June - 3 July	Juan Carlos I	21	2,126	1,077	3,203	27	258	Italy
16	2009	Pescara	25 June – 5 July	Renato Schifani	23	2,183	1,185	3,368	28	244	Italy
17	2013	Mersin	20 – 30 June	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	24	1,994	1,070	3,064	27	264	Italy
18	2018	Tarragona	22 June – 1 July	Felipe VI	26	2,180	1,468	3,648	28	246	Italy
19	2022	Oran	25 June – 6 July	Abdelmadjid Tebboune	26	2,014	1,284	3,298	24	244	Italy
20	2026	Taranto	23 August – 3 September	Future event					28	269	Future event
21	2030	Pristina	24 July – 4 August	Future event

Notes

All-time medal table

Medal Table 1951–2022

Rank	Team	Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Italy	19	924	791	747	2462^[14]
2	France	19	652	600	569	1821^[14]
3	Turkey	19	386	269	315	970^[14]
4	Spain	19	345	474	569	1388^[14]
5	Greece	19	200	257	349	806^[14]
6	Yugoslavia*	12	199	177	182	558^[14]
7	Egypt	17	156	209	255	620^[14]
8	Tunisia	17	89	101	159	349^[14]
9	Algeria	15	86	76	131	293^[14]
10	Morocco	17	72	90	116	278^[14]
11	Croatia	8	57	69	79	205^[14]
12	Slovenia	8	55	64	99	218^[14]
13	Serbia	5	54	51	58	163^[14]
14	Syria	17	32	42	76	150^[14]
15	United Arab Republic**	1	23	21	30	74^[14]
16	Cyprus	11	19	21	25	65^[14]
17	Albania	10	11	19	18	48^[14]
18	Lebanon	18	10	23	42	75^[14]
19	Portugal	2	10	18	21	49^[14]
20	Bosnia and Herzegovina	8	6	8	25	39^[14]
21	Kosovo	2	6	1	3	10^[14]
22	San Marino	10	5	10	8	23^[14]
23	Montenegro	4	4	8	10	22^[14]
24	North Macedonia	3	3	2	9	14^[14]
25	Libya	13	2	1	14	17^[14]
26	Malta	19	1	4	4	9^[14]
27	Monaco	15	1	3	1	5^[14]
28	Andorra	5	0	0	0	0^[14]
29	Jordan***	1	0	0	0	0^[14]
Total		19	3408	3409	3914	10731

– Yugoslavia competed in 1997 and 2001 as FR Yugoslavia.^[15]

– Serbia competed in 2005 as Serbia and Montenegro.

(*) Yugoslavia participated in the Games before its breakup in 1992 and the establishment of the constituent republics.
(**) The UAR included at the time Egypt and Syria.
(***) Honorary participation in Tunis in 2001.

Doping

Changes by doping:

Nurcan Taylan – Weightlifting at the 2009 Mediterranean Games - 53 kg Women - 2 Gold
Gülcan Mıngır – Athletics at the 2013 Mediterranean Games – Results - 3000m Steeplechase Women – 1 Bronze

Competitions

Throughout the history of the Mediterranean Games, 34 different sports have been presented:

Sport	Years
3x3 basketball	Since 2018
Archery	Since 1971
Athletics	Since 1951
Badminton	Since 2013
Basketball	Since 1951
Beach volleyball	Since 2005
Bocce	Since 1997
Boxing	Since 1951
Canoeing	Since 1979
Cycling	Since 1955
Diving	Since 1951
Equestrian	Since 1955

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

Sport	Years
Shooting	Since 1951
Swimming	Since 1951
Table tennis	Since 1971
Taekwondo	Since 2013
Tennis	Since 1963
Volleyball	Since 1959
Water polo	Since 1951
Waterskiing	Since 2009
Weightlifting	Since 1951
Wrestling	Since 1951