The I

Bolivarian Games The Bolivarian Games (Spanish: ''Juegos Bolivarianos'', full name ''Juegos Deportivos Bolivarianos'') are a regional multi-sport event held in honor of Simón Bolívar, and organized by the Bolivarian Sports Organization (''Organización Deport ...

(Spanish: ''Juegos Bolivarianos'') were a

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of interna ...

held between August 6–22, 1938, in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, at the

Estadio El Campín The Estadio Nemesio Camacho El Campín, commonly known as El Campín, is the main stadium of Bogotá, Colombia. It was inaugurated on 10 August 1938 and has a current capacity of 36,343 spectators. It is the home ground of the Categoría Primera ...

, for the city's 400th anniversary. The Games were organized by the Bolivarian Sports Organization (

ODEBO Organización Deportiva Bolivariana (ODEBO; English: Bolivarian Sport Organization) is a sports organization based in South America. It organizes the Bolivarian Games. History The idea of creating a Bolivarian sports organization came to mind to ...

). The Games were officially opened by Colombian president

Alfonso López Pumarejo Alfonso López Pumarejo (31 January 1886 – 20 November 1959) was a Colombian political figure, who twice served as President of Colombia, as a member of the Colombian Liberal Party. He served as President of Colombia for the first time between ...

, accompanied by Alberto Nariño Cheyne from the

Colombian Olympic Committee The Colombian Olympic Committee or COC ( es, Comité Olímpico Colombiano – COC) is the governing Olympic body of Colombia. Its mission is the coordination of efforts to protect the Olympic movement and consolidate its development, compli ...

, Colonel Leopoldo Piedrahita from the local organizing committee, and Gustavo Santos, mayor of the city of

. A detailed history of the early editions of the Bolivarian Games between 1938 and 1989 was published in a book written (in Spanish) by José Gamarra Zorrilla, former president of the

Bolivian Olympic Committee The Bolivian Olympic Committee (:es:Comité Olímpico Boliviano, Comité Olímpico Boliviano - COB) is the National Olympic Committee representing Bolivia in the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), ...

, and first president (1976-1982) of

ODESUR The Organización Deportiva Suramericana (ODESUR) is a multi-sports organisation. They organize the South American Games. Affiliates There are 15 affiliated National Olympic Committee, National Olympic Committees: References External link ...

. Gold medal winners from Ecuador were published by the

Comité Olímpico Ecuatoriano The Ecuadorian National Olympic Committee (ECU; es, Comité Olímpico Ecuatoriano) was created in 1948 and recognized by the IOC in 1959. In 2012, it had its autonomy reinstated "following domestic issues whereby the Sports Ministry interfered i ...

. The official posters for the Games were designed by Colombian artist Sergio Trujillo Magnenat.

Historical photos

Acto inaugural de los Juegos Bolivarianos Bogota 1938

Further photos can be found on the webpage of the

Luis Ángel Arango Library Luis Ángel Arango Library (Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango or BLAA) is a public library located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is one of the largest and most important libraries in the world. It was founded in 1958 as a small library with a few books o ...

Participation

A total of 716 athletes from 6 countries were reported to participate: * (70) * (250) * (110) * (74) * (112) * (100)

Sports

The following sports were mentioned: *

Aquatic sports The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

Diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

() **

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

() **

Water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

() *

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

() *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

() *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

() *

Boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

() *

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

() *

Cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

() *

Equestrianism Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, Driving (horse), driving, and Equestrian vaulting, vaulting ...

() *

Fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

() *

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

() *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

() *

Pelota al Guante ()^† * Shooting pictogram

Shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...

() *

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

() *

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

() *

Weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift Weight training#Equipment, weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various t ...

() *

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

() ^†: Exhibition event. The list might be incomplete.

Medal count

The medal count for these Games is tabulated below. This table is sorted by the number of

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

s earned by each country. The number of

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

s is taken into consideration next, and then the number of

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

References

{{BolivarianGames Bolivarian Games

Multi-sport events in Colombia 20th century in Bogotá Sports competitions in Bogotá August 1938 sports events