Pacific Mini Games

The Pacific Mini Games is a continental multi-sport event contested by countries and territories located in Oceania. The event has been held every four years since the inaugural games in Honiara, Solomon Islands in 1981. It was known as the South Pacific Mini Games prior to 2009. It is called the 'Mini' games because it is a scaled-down version of the main Pacific Games and is similarly rotated on a four-year basis in the intervening years between the main Games.

Pacific Mini Games

Abbreviation	PMG
First event	1981
Occur every	4 years
Headquarters	Suva, Fiji
President	Vidhya Lakhan
Website	Official website

The Mini Games have been hosted by 9 different Pacific Island capitals around 4 countries and 5 territories. Only the Cook Islands and Vanuatu have hosted twice, with Palau set to host the event for the second time in 2025. Similarly to the main Games, athletes with a disability are included as full members of their national teams. In each sporting event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals are awarded for second place, and bronze medals are awarded for third place.

Unlike the main Games, there is equal dominance from Pacific Games associations (PGA's). Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Fiji have all ranked first a record 3 times each with Samoa and Nauru topping a games once.

Concept

Following the success of the main Pacific Games, the Pacific Games council decided to create a smaller version of the games to enable smaller nations and territories to host events and compete against each other. From this came the Pacific Mini Games.

Pacific Games Council

Main article: Pacific Games § Council

The governing body for the mini games is the Pacific Games Council. Much like the main games, the Games council flag is presented to the host nation of the next mini games at the end of every games. As of 2017,^[1] the council has 22 member nations.

Two other nations, Australia and New Zealand, are not members of the council but are invited as observers to the council's general assembly.^[1] These nations participated at the mini games in 2017 and made their main games debut in 2015.^[1]

Editions

1981

1985, 2009

1989

1993, 2017

1997

2001

2005, 2025

2013

2022

Host cities of the Pacific Mini Games

List of Pacific Mini Games

Overview of the Pacific Mini Games

Year	Edition	Host city	Host Association	Opened by	Sports	Events	Teams	Start date	End date	Competitors	Top Association	Ref
1981	I	Honiara	Solomon Islands	Unknown	5	51	15	8 Jul.	16 Jul.	600+	New​ Caledonia
1985	II	Rarotonga	Cook Islands	Unknown	6	56	16	31 Jul.	9 Aug.	700	Papua New Guinea
1989	III	Nukuʻalofa	Tonga	King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV	6	93	16	22 Aug.	1 Sep.	832	Western​ Samoa
1993	IV	Port Vila	Vanuatu	Unknown	6	67	15	6 Dec.	16 Dec.		Fiji
1997	V	Pago Pago	American Samoa	Unknown	11	144	19	11 Aug.	22 Aug.	1798	Nauru
2001	VI	Kingston	Norfolk Island	Unknown	10	97	18	3 Dec.	14 Dec.		Fiji
2005	VII	Koror	Palau	Tommy Remengesau	12	170	20	25 Jul.	4 Aug.		New Caledonia
2009	VIII	Rarotonga	Cook Islands	Frederick Tutu Goodwin	15	144	21	21 Sep.	2 Oct.	1354+	Fiji
2013	IX	Mata Utu	Wallis and Futuna	François Hollande	8	127	22	2 Sep.	12 Sep.		Papua New Guinea
2017	X	Port Vila	Vanuatu	Tallis Obed Moses	14	173	24	5 Dec.	15 Dec.	2000	New Caledonia
2022	XI	Saipan	Northern Mariana Islands	Ralph Torres	9	144	19	17 Jun.	25 Jun.	1034	Papua New Guinea
2025	XII	Koror	Palau	TBA						TBD

As with the main games, the cost of providing the necessary facilities and infrastructure is a concern to the region's smaller nations. In preparation for the 2009 Games in Rarotonga, despite having hosted the games previously, the local government considered diverting funds from a highway project, and secured a loan for US$10 million from the Chinese government to finance the building of a stadium.^[2][3]

Sports

Further information: Pacific Games § Sports

There are 37 approved sports by the Pacific Games Council updated in 2019. Unlike the main games, the Pacific Mini Games does not have a compulsory sports list. However, 50 percent of the sports selected for a games must be from the compulsory sports list of the Pacific Games Council.

After the 2022 Games in Saipan, 29 of the 37 sports have been included at the Mini Games since the inaugural edition in 1981.

Listed are sports already contested at the Pacific Mini Games.

Sport		Contested	Years
	Discipline
Archery		2 times	2001, 2017
Athletics		All	1981–present
Badminton		Once	2022
Baseball		2 times	2005, 2022–present
Basketball	Basketball	2 times	1997, 2005
	3x3 Basketball	Once	2017
Bodybuilding		Once	2001
Boxing		6 times	1981, 1989–1997, 2009, 2017
Football		3 times	1981, 1993, 2017
Golf		8 times	1985–2001, 2009, 2017–present
Judo		Once	2017
Karate		Once	2017
Lawn bowls		3 times	1985, 2001, 2009
Netball		8 times	1981–2001, 2009, 2017
Outrigger canoeing		4 times	2005–2013, 2022–present
Powerlifting		Once	1997
Rugby 7s		4 times	1997, 2009–2017
Sailing		3 times	1997, 2009−2013
Shooting		Once	2001
Softball		Once	2005
Squash		2 times	2001, 2009
Swimming		Once	2005
Table tennis		3 times	2005–09, 2017
Taekwondo		Once	2013
Tennis		10 times	1981–2009, 2017–present
Touch rugby		Once	2009
Triathlon		4 times	2001–2009, 2022–present
Volleyball	Indoor volleyball	2 times	1997, 2013
	Beach volleyball	4 times	2005, 2013–present
Weightlifting		7 times	1989, 1997, 2005–present
Wrestling		Once	2005

Former sports

Both disciplines have been replaced by other versions of the sports. Rugby 15s (replaced by Rugby 7s), and Rugby league 7s (replaced by Rugby league 9s).

Sport	Contested	Years
Rugby 15s	Once	1985
Rugby league 7s	Once	2009

All-time medal table

This table shows all medals won by a Pacific Games association since the inaugural games in 1981 to the most recent games held in 2022.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	New​ Caledonia	248	193	146	587
2	Fiji	189	178	178	545
3	Papua New Guinea	182	187	173	542
4	French Polynesia	151	109	105	365
5	Samoa	133	80	88	301
6	Nauru	66	23	30	119
7	Vanuatu	42	57	59	158
8	Cook Islands	38	49	50	137
9	Tonga	33	42	75	150
10	Solomon Islands	28	74	63	165
11	American Samoa	27	32	22	81
12	Kiribati	22	11	17	50
13	Northern Mariana Islands	20	25	18	63
14	Guam	19	19	34	72
15	Australia	16	3	5	24
16	Palau	12	11	8	31
17	Wallis and Futuna	9	24	32	65
18	Micronesia	9	6	5	20
19	Norfolk Island	7	17	14	38
20	Marshall Islands	5	6	0	11
21	Tuvalu	3	3	11	17
22	Niue	2	14	7	23
23	New Zealand	2	7	0	9
–	Independent PGC athletes	2	1	0	3
24	Tokelau	0	2	1	3
Totals (24 entries)		1,265	1,173	1,141	3,579

See also

• Pacific Games

References

1. "Vanuatu committed to 2017 Pacific Mini Games". Cook Islands News. 11 May 2017. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
2. Stadium and China loan on hold Archived 8 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine Cook Islands News Online, 12 September 2007
3. "Stadium for Mini Games in Cooks gets go-ahead". Radio New Zealand. 11 March 2008. Archived from the original on 1 August 2009.

Sources

• Charter – Constitution adopted Apia, Samoa 14 May 2006 – Protocols and Regulations adopted by Executive Board on 17th January 2007 and 20th March 2007 (PDF) (Report). Pacific Games Council. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF 0.3 MB) on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 15 May 2015.