Central American and Caribbean Games

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The Central American and Caribbean Games (or CACs) are a multi-sport regional championships event, held quadrennial (every 4 years), typically in the middle (even) year between Summer Olympics. The Games are for countries in Central America and the Caribbean (including Bermuda), as well as a few South American countries that border the Caribbean Sea such as Venezuela.

The Games are overseen by the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organization (CASCO) (the organization also goes by the acronym "ODECABE" (pronounced "O-da-cob-be") from its full Spanish name: Organización Deportiva Centroamericana y del Caribe). They are designed to provide a step between sub-CAC-region Games held the first year following a Summer Olympics (e.g. Central American Games) and the Continental Championships, the Pan American Games, held the year before the Summer Olympics.

The most recent CACs occurred in July 2006 in Cartagena, Colombia. The next edition will take place in the second half of July 2010 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

History

The CACs are the oldest continuing regional games in the world,^[1] and only the Olympics have run longer. Mexico, Cuba and Guatemala were the three countries present at the first games, which were then called the Central American Games. In 1935 their name was changed to Central American and Caribbean Games to reflect expanding participation. Thirty one nations took part in the 1993 games in Puerto Rico and the 1998 games in Venezuela. The 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games ended on July 30, 2006.

It should be noted that a "Central American Games" does exist today, Juegoes Centroamericana, involving just Central American countries.

Editions

Year	Event	Host city		Duration	Countries	Sports	Athletes
1926	I Central American Games			October 30 November 2	3	9	269
		Mexico City	Mexico
1930	II Central American Games			March 15 April 15	9	9	606
		La Habana	Cuba
1935	III Central American and Caribbean Games			March 16 April 5	9	13	741
		San Salvador	El Salvador
1938	IV Central American and Caribbean Games			February 5 February 24	10	16	1216
		Panama City	Panama
1946	V Central American and Caribbean Games			March 5 March 25	13	17	1540
		Barranquilla	Colombia
1950	VI Central American and Caribbean Games			February 28 March 12	14	19	1390
		Guatemala City	Guatemala
1954	VII Central American and Caribbean Games			March 5 March 20	12		1356
		Mexico City	Mexico
1959	VIII Central American and Caribbean Games			January 6 January 15	12	17	1150
		Caracas	Venezuela
1962	IX Central American and Caribbean Games			August 15 August 28	15		1559
		Kingston	Jamaica
1966	X Central American and Caribbean Games			July 11 July 25	18		1689
		San Juan	Puerto Rico
1970	XI Central American and Caribbean Games			February 28 March 13	21		2095
		Panama City	Panama
1974	XII Central American and Caribbean Games			February 27 March 13	23	18	1928
		Santo Domingo	Dominican Republic
1978	XIII Central American and Caribbean Games			July 7 July 28	21	18	2605
		Medellín	Colombia
1982	XIV Central American and Caribbean Games			August 7 August 18	19		2420
		La Habana	Cuba
1986	XV Central American and Caribbean Games			June 24 July 5	26	25	2963
		Santiago de los Caballeros	Dominican Republic
1990	XVI Central American and Caribbean Games			November 20 December 3	29		4206
		Mexico City	Mexico
1993	XVII Central American and Caribbean Games			November 19 November 30	32		3570
		Ponce	Puerto Rico
1998	XVIII Central American and Caribbean Games			August 8 August 22	31		5200
		Maracaibo	Venezuela
2002	XIX Central American and Caribbean Games			November 19 November 30	31	37	7000
		San Salvador	El Salvador
2006	XX Central American and Caribbean Games			July 15 July 30	32
		Cartagena de Indias	Colombia
2010	XXI Central American and Caribbean Games
		Mayagüez	Puerto Rico
2014	XXII Central American and Caribbean Games
		Veracruz	Mexico

Historical Medal Count

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Cuba	1490	737	554	2781
2	Mexico	886	903	766	2555
3	Venezuela	343	507	584	1434
4	Colombia	276	361	405	1042
5	Puerto Rico	236	400	519	1155
6	Panama	81	141	147	369
7	Jamaica	78	100	99	277
8	Dominican Republic	74	147	247	468
9	Guatemala	55	121	259	425
10	El Salvador	33	77	141	251
11	Costa Rica	33	32	54	119
12	Trinidad and Tobago	31	54	69	154
13	Netherlands Antilles	27	27	45	99
14	Bahamas	13	10	21	44
15	Suriname	12	4	6	22
16	United States Virgin Islands	9	14	16	39
17	Guyana	5	11	28	44
18	Barbados	5	10	27	42
19	Nicaragua	3	13	36	52
20	Haiti	3	4	14	21
21	Honduras	2	8	18	28
22	Bermuda	1	3	10	14
23	Belize	1	2	2	5
24	Cayman Islands	1	1	3	5
25	Aruba	1	0	1	2
26	Saint Lucia	1	0	0	1
27	British Virgin Islands	1	0	0	1
28	Antigua and Barbuda	0	3	4	7
29	Grenada	0	0	4	4
30	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0	0	2	2
31	Dominica	0	0	1	1
Total		3625	3610	3969	11204

See also

• Athletics at the Central American and Caribbean Games
• Pan American Games

References

• 2006 Official Website
• 2010 Official Website