The III

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 December 5–21, 1951, at the Estadio Olímpico de la Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas,

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. The Games were organized by the Bolivarian Sports Organization ( ODEBO). The Games were officially opened by

Germán Suárez Flamerich Germán Suárez Flamerich (10 April 1907 – 24 June 1990) was the president of Venezuela from 1950 to 1952. Flamerich was a lawyer, college professor, diplomat, and politician. He was president of the Government Junta from 1950 to 1952, after th ...

, who became president of the "Junta de Gobierno" 1950-1952, after the assassination of

Carlos Delgado Chalbaud Carlos Román Delgado Chalbaud Gómez (20 January 1909 – 13 November 1950) was a Venezuelan career military officer. He was the president of Venezuela from 1948 to 1950 as leader of a military junta. In 1945, he was one of the high-ranking o ...

. 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 ( Comité Olímpico Boliviano - COB) is the National Olympic Committee representing Bolivia in the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), the Association of National Olym ...

, 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 Committees A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constit ...

. 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 ...

Participation

A total of 1010 athletes from 6 countries were reported to participate: * * * * * *

Sports

The local Organizing Committee included three popular Venezuelan sports (

Basque pelota Basque pelota ( Basque: '' pilota'', Spanish: '' pelota vasca'', French: '' pelote basque'') is the name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using one's hand, a racket, a wooden bat or a basket, against a wall (''frontis or fronto ...

Bolas criollas Bolas criollas is a traditional team sport from Venezuela, very popular in the Llanos and most rural regions. It is one of the most representative icons of Llanero culture. Its origins can be traced back to traditional European boules sports, suc ...

, and

Coleo is a traditional Venezuelan and Colombian sport, very similar to a rodeo, where a small group of llaneros (cowboys) on horseback pursue cattle at high speeds through a narrow pathway (called a ) in order to drop or tumble them. are usually pr ...

) as exhibition events. The following sports were explicitly 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 vo ...

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 sport, 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 water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

() *

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), competi ...

() *

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 t ...

() *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

() *

()^† *

Billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

() *

()^† *

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 predetermine ...

() *

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 dist ...

() *

()^† *

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 t ...

Road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes recreational, racing, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same laws as ...

() **

Track cycling Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it ...

() *

Equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

() *

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, ...

() *

Football () * Golf pictogram

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 ...

() *

Modern pentathlon () * 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 ...

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Table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

() *

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 Sum ...

() *

Weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift 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 types of competition; promo ...

() *

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 medals earned by each country. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next, and then the number of bronze medals.

References

{{BolivarianGames Bolivarian Games S

B Sports competitions in Caracas Multi-sport events in Venezuela 20th century in Caracas December 1951 sports events in South America