International Island Games Association

The International Island Games Association (IGA) is an organisation the sole purpose of which is to organise the Island Games, a friendly biennial athletic competition between teams from several European islands and other small territories. The IGA liaises with the member island associations and with sponsors of the games. It investigates whether islands wanting to join fit the membership criteria. Any further additions since Minorca joined in 2005 will now require changes to the constitution.

History

The Island Games began in 1985 as the Inter-Island Games, as part of the Isle of Man International Year of Sport, and were intended to be a one-off sporting celebration only. Geoffrey Corlett, who became the first Games Director, not only contacted the islands surrounding the United Kingdom, but also encouraged the countries of Greenland, Iceland and Malta, the territories of Faroe Islands, Saint Helena and Channel Islands; and others to participate. Initially, fifteen islands with 600 competitors and officials took part in seven sports, with the total cost of staging the Games being put at £70,000. The track and field events were held on an eight-lane grass track, a far cry from the current games, which now use a synthetic track in a stadium capable of holding 10,000 spectators. So successful were the Games of 1985 that it was decided to hold a similar event two years later.

Members

The IGA was founded in the Isle of Man in 1985. Constituents come from islands in, or associated with, nine sovereign states (Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom).

Current members of the IGA are:

Gibraltar is the only member of the IGA that is not an island or group of islands (it is a peninsula of Iberia, sharing a 1.2 km land border with Spain, but seen as an island in a geopolitical sense). Anglesey, Hitra, and Prince Edward Island have bridge or tunnel connections to their mainland. Greenland is by far the largest island, and is bigger than all the rest combined.

Game venues

Faroese stamp to the 1989 Island Games: Rowing

Football

Sports

The host country chooses between 12 and 14 different sports for their games from this list:

Medals table

Including medals won in the 2009 edition

Island Games medal count

Pos	Country
1	Jersey	396	377	357
2	Isle of Man	317	311	333
3	Guernsey	294	308	338
4	Gotland	199	161	149
5	Faroe Islands	142	135	168
6	Åland	139	153	121
7	Isle of Wight	133	123	161
8	Cayman Islands	57	37	41
9	Saaremaa	56	67	64
10	Bermuda	53	49	54
11	Iceland	50	45	41
12	Rhodes	50	42	42
13	Gibraltar	38	43	69
14	Shetland Islands	30	48	77
15	Minorca	20	17	21
16	Orkney	18	29	36
17	Anglesey (Ynys Môn)	17	28	38
18	Greenland	15	18	25
19	Prince Edward Island	6	6	9
20	Malta	6	2	2
21	Western Isles	2	4	11
22	Sark	1	7	5
23	Falkland Islands	1	5	11
24	Hitra	1	2	0
25	Frøya	1	1	2
26	Alderney	0	2	3
27	Saint Helena	0	0	2

From 2001, competitors from islands with a population of less than 10,000 (Alderney, Falklands, Frøya, Hitra, St. Helena and Sark), also compete for Gold, Silver and Bronze 'Small Island Certificates', with restrictions that Silver is only awarded if at least 3 compete, and Bronze only if at least 4 compete.

External links

• IslandGames.net
• The 2007 Island Games was hosted in Rhodes, Greece

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