Junior Pan American Games

The Junior Pan American Games are a multi-sport event held every four years among youth athletes from all over the American continent. The Games have been organized by Panam Sports. This event, inspired by the Youth Olympic Games, is exclusively for athletes under 21 years of age, with fewer infrastructure requirements and costs than the Pan American Games.^[1]

The last games were held in Asunción, Paraguay, in 2025,^[2] and the next games will take place in Rosario, Argentina, in 2029.

History

On 16 January 2019, PASO announced the creation of the Junior Pan American Games.^[3][4]

Panam Sports accepted candidate cities for the first edition of the Games until 31 January. Cali, Colombia; Santa Ana, El Salvador; and Monterrey, Mexico, were accepted as candidate cities.^[5] Cali was chosen as the host city at the Executive Committee in San José, Costa Rica, on 27 March 2019.^[6]

Panam Sports chose Asunción, Paraguay to host for the 2025 Junior Pan American Games.^[7] Asunción received 32 out of 48 votes, while Santa Marta, Colombia, received the remaining 16 votes.

On April 1, 2026, Panam Sports announced they had received three candidacies for the 2029 Junior Pan American Games; Guatemala City, Panama City and Rosario, Argentina. The official candidate cities will be announced on June 19, and the host will be selected at the August Panam Sports General Assembly in Lima, Peru.^[8] However, Panama City withdraw its bid on 22 July 2026 before the Centro Caribe Sports General Assembly in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic ahead of the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games opening ceremony, leaving Guatemala City and Rosario the two remaining bidders.^[9] On 28 August 2026, Rosario won the to host the 2029 edition by five votes with 29 votes out of 53 votes while Guatemala City received 24 votes.

List of Junior Pan American Games editions

Edition	Year	Host city	Host nation	Opened by	Start date	End date	Nations	Competitors	Sports	Events	Top placed team	Ref.
I	2021	Cali-Valle	Colombia	President Iván Duque	25 November	5 December	41	2,540	28	321[10]	Brazil	[11]
II	2025	Asunción	Paraguay	President Santiago Peña	9 August	23 August	41	3,975	28	336[12]	Brazil	[13]
III	2029	Rosario	Argentina	President of Argentina (expected)	TBA	TBA	Future event

Sports

In the first edition of the games a total of 28 sports were contested, encompassing a total of 40 disciplines.^[14][15][16] In the second edition, BMX freestyle, field hockey, golf, open water swimming and rugby sevens were included on the games. Other Olympic events and disciplines not contested yet includes basketball (5x5), water polo, canoe slalom, equestrian, sport climbing, surfing and football.

Medal count

Last updated after the 2025 Junior Pan American Games

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil	129	99	111	339
2	United States	101	72	83	256
3	Colombia	96	61	103	260
4	Mexico	75	123	103	301
5	Cuba	48	32	37	117
6	Argentina	46	60	62	168
7	Chile	30	34	59	123
8	Canada	23	22	28	73
9	Ecuador	21	27	38	86
10	Venezuela	19	23	40	82
11	Puerto Rico	15	11	21	47
12	Peru	9	20	29	58
13	Uruguay	9	9	9	27
14	Guatemala	8	8	14	30
15	Dominican Republic	6	10	15	31
16	Paraguay	5	10	18	33
17	Jamaica	4	5	6	15
18	Aruba	3	2	0	5
19	Costa Rica	2	3	6	11
20	Bolivia	2	2	6	10
21	Trinidad and Tobago	1	3	9	13
22	Nicaragua	1	2	2	5
23	Virgin Islands	1	2	0	3
24	Panama	1	1	7	9
25	Bahamas	1	1	3	5
26	Cayman Islands	1	0	1	2
27	Dominica	1	0	0	1
	Haiti	1	0	0	1
29	El Salvador	0	5	6	11
30	Bermuda	0	3	1	4
31	Grenada	0	2	1	3
32	Guyana	0	1	3	4
33	Barbados	0	1	1	2
	British Virgin Islands	0	1	1	2
35	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0	1	0	1
36	Honduras	0	0	1	1
	Saint Lucia	0	0	1	1
38	Antigua and Barbuda	0	0	0	0
	Belize	0	0	0	0
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0	0	0	0
	Suriname	0	0	0	0
Totals (41 entries)		659	656	825	2,140

See also

• Youth Olympic Games
• African Youth Games
• Asian Youth Games
• European Youth Olympic Festival
• South American Youth Games
• Bolivarian Youth Games

References

External links

• Official website