With the opening ceremony set to begin Saturday evening, about 4700 of the best athletes in South America have arrived in Paraguay to compete at the 2022 South American Games. The games are going to be held in the capital city of Asuncion from October 1st to October 15th 2022.
The athletes represent 15 nations, with Curacao set to compete for the first time. The constituent country, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands previously competed as part of the Netherlands Antilles prior to its dissolution. Also competing are Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Overall, 412 events are scheduled to take place across 36 sports. This includes 28/32 sports set to be held at the 2024 Olympics (missing breaking, modern pentathlon, sport climbing and surfing) along with bocce, bodybuilding, bowling, chess, karate, padel, squash and water skiing.
Not only will athletes strive to win gold for their nation, but the South American Games are also qualifiers in 18 sports and will provide direct quotas to compete at the 2023 Pan American Games. The table below gives a breakdown of those qualifiers.
Sport
Quotas to Pan Am Games
Aquatics
Artistic Swimming – Top two eligible teams (plus Chile) will qualify a team and duet and top two eligible duets will compete in the duet.
Diving – 10-12 athletes in men’s events and 10-12 athletes in women’s events
Open Water – Top seven (plus Chile) eligible athletes per gender
Water Polo – Two highest ranked eligible teams plus Chile
Archery
Gold medalists in the men’s and women’s individual recurve and compound events
Athletics
Gold medalists of each individual event will be eligible to compete. Additionally, the gold and silver medalists of the five relay events will qualify.
Bowling
The three best men’s and women’s nations with the best combined score by their two athletes.
Boxing
Gold and silver medalists in each event.
Cycling
Track – The highest ranked eligible nation from each event.
Mountain – The highest ranked eligible nation from each event.
Equestrian
Dressage – Two highest ranked teams, three highest ranked individuals without a team.
Jumping – Three highest ranked teams, four highest ranked individuals without a team.
Field Hockey
Two highest ranked eligible teams
Handball
Two highest ranked eligible teams
Karate
Two highest ranked eligible athletes in each individual event.
Roller Sports
Speed skating – Highest ranked eligible athlete in each gender after combining the results of the sprint or distance events will qualify their nation (2 men and 2 women).
Rugby Sevens
Two highest ranked eligible teams.
Shooting
Highest ranked eligible athlete will qualify their nation.
Squash
Gold medalists from the team events
Table Tennis
Highest ranked eligible men’s and women’s teams
Tennis
Gold and silver medalists in each individual event.
Triathlon
Gold medalist in the mixed relay
Water Skiing
Gold medalists in each wakeboard event.
As the Pan American Games will be a qualifying event to the 2024 Olympics, the South American Games can be considered the first step for Olympic qualification for the region. Of the 18 sports offering direct quotas to the Pan American Games, 9 sports; (aquatics (artistic swimming, diving, water polo), archery, boxing, equestrian, field hockey, handball, shooting, table tennis and tennis) will offer direct quotas to the Olympics while in athletics and cycling, athletes will be able to earn world ranking points.
The first medals are set to be awarded on Sunday where 38 events across 8 sports will be decided.