Lima, Asuncion Bid For 2027 Pan Am Games

The capitals of Peru and Paraguay will bid to stage the 2027 Pan Am Games after the Colombian city of Barranquilla was stripped of its hosting rights last month for failing to meet its contractual obligations.

Lima and Asuncion are the official candidates, the governing body Panam Sports said Thursday. The candidatures include letters signed by government authorities of the region and of the applicant city of each country, as well as a letter of intent from their respective National Olympic Committees approving their candidacies.

To determine the next Host City, the Panam Sports Executive Committee has organized an Extraordinary General Assembly to be held virtually on March 12. Each of the candidate cities will make a 40-minute presentation before a vote will be held.

A host for the 2027 Pan Am Games will need to be found after Panam Sports’ announcement that Barranquilla, Colombia, had been withdrawn by the executive committee. Panam Sports said the decision was made “following several breaches of the Host City Contract.” Barranquilla was the only city to make a formal proposal to the Panam Sports continental body when it was awarded the event in August 2021.

“We are very happy with the application by two of our continent’s great cities,” said Panam Sports President Neven Ilic. “Both met the requirements requested in this process within the stipulated period and in March, the General Assembly will have the opportunity to vote for the one it considers best to host the twentieth Pan American Games in history.”

The 2023 Pan American Games in Chile featured 6,800 athletes from 41 countries, including 631 athletes from the United States. The Games are one of the biggest non-Olympic events for the national governing body movement, giving some NGBs the chance to have a dress rehearsal for the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris and for others, including USA Water Ski and Wake Sports, the chance to compete at a multi-sport international competition given it is not part of the Olympic program.

The Pan Am Games is held among athletes from nations of the Americas every four years in the year before the Olympic Summer Games. The United States last hosted in 1987 in Indianapolis; the U.S. has won the medal count at every Pan Am Games except the inaugural event in 1951 in Argentina and the 1991 event in Havana.