Guatemala and Costa Rica save the Central American Games and will do so in just eight months

Guatemala and Costa Rica came to the rescue of the Central American Games, which have been in a state of uncertainty for seven months after the resignation of the Salvadoran city of Santa Tecla, its original venue.

The emerging co-sponsorship of these Games, a project that turns 50 this year, will become a reality between October 27 and November 13.

The Central American Sports Organization (ORDECA) with its headquarters in San José, Costa Rica, in a statement confirmed the venues and dates and a program with 24 sports that had to be reduced in tune with the new circumstances. Each country will now host 12 sports a piece.

According to ORDECA, the proposal was unanimously accepted by the members of the organization.

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize make up the ORDECA chaired by Henry Núñez, former president of the Costa Rican Olympic Committee.

Costa Rica hosted this regional mega-event for the only time in 2013 under the presidency of Laura Chinchilla, the first female president in the history of that country. Chinchilla has been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 2018.

Nearly 3,000 athletes could register for this competition, which would be the third multidisciplinary games on the continent in the new three-year Olympic cycle. The First Junior Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia were organized in November 2021. From October 1 to 15, 2022, Asunción, Paraguay, will host the South American Games.

Guatemala has hosted four times. This country organized the first version in 1973 after the Games proposal was approved in 1972.

On two occasions the Central American Games have been held in multiple venues. The first, in 2006, where El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua came together to organize them.

In 2010, Honduras was designated as the venue for the IX Games in December 2009, but could not carry it out due to the political crisis, and the event was reassigned to Panama and Guatemala.

According to specialists, a strong bid for first place between Guatemala and El Salvador should be expected. El Salvador is preparing to host the Central American and Caribbean Games in May 2023.

Initially these Central American Games were scheduled for the Salvadoran city of Santa Tecla, but a communication crisis between the National Olympic Committee and the government of Nayib Bukele led to the resignation of this venue.

The National Sports Institute of El Salvador then decided to focus solely on the rescued regional Games after Panama suddenly gave up organizing them in the summer of 2020, due to COVID-19 concerns while the COES chose a new direction.