Mediterranean Games

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. 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 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 have hosted the Mediterranean Games: 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 Summer Olympic Games. Since 1993, 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 2018, the Mediterranean Games calendar was reset again when Tarragona hosted the Games in the mid-even year between the Summer Olympic Games (and the same year as the FIFA Men's World Cup).

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. 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.

Participating countries

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

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

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 games, nor has Great Britain who represents the British Overseas Territory 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 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.[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.

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. Portugal competed in the 2018 Mediterranean Games after a decision which approved Portugal as effective National Olympic Committee.[10][11]

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 Mediterranean Sea. During the closing ceremony, the flag is transferred to the country of the city chosen to host the next Mediterranean Games.[12]

All host cities have been coastal and all but one on the Mediterranean coast (Casablanca is 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	France
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	19	1994	604	2598	24	217	France
13	1997	Bari	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro	21	2166	790	2956	27	234	Italy
14	2001	Tunis	Zine El Abidine Ben Ali	23[13]	1972	1019	2991	23	230	France
15	2005	Almería	Juan Carlos I	21	2126	1077	3203	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	2180	1468	3648	28	246	Italy
19	2022	Oran	Abdelmadjid Tebboune	26	2014	1284	3298	24	244	Italy
20	2026	Taranto	President of Italy (expected)	Future Event
21	2030	Pristina	President of Kosovo (expected)	Future Event

Notes

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	384	269	314	967[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 and the establishment of the constituent republics
• (**) The UAR included at the time Egypt and Syria
• (***) Honorary participation in the MG Tunis 2001

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

Sport Years 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

Sport Years Sailing Since 1955 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

• Mediterranean Beach Games

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mediterranean Games.

• Official website – International Mediterranean Games Committee