A record number of horse-and-rider combinations will compete in the equestrian events at the 16th Pan-American Games which kick off in Guadalajara, Mexico in just over a weeks’ time, on Sunday 16 October.  This is the world’s largest multi-sport event apart from the summer Olympics, and takes place on a four-year cycle leading up to each Olympic fixture.

Held in accordance with the Olympic Charter and Rules, the Pan-Americans provide Olympic qualification opportunities for athletes in FEI geographical regions D and E – North America and Central/South America.   More than 5,000 athletes will take part in 46 different sports and almost 400 events during the two weeks of world-class competition and, in the three equestrian disciplines of Jumping, Dressage and Eventing, a total of 157 partnerships are expected to line out.  The 2011 fixture brings together athletes from 42 countries.
 
ORIGINS
The first Pan-American Games took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1951, but its origins date back more than 20 years earlier. During an Olympic Congress that coincided with the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, France, the members of the International Olympic Committees of Cuba, Guatemala and Mexico proposed the creation of a regional sports event in which Central American countries would participate. This became a reality two years later when Mexico City hosted the first Central American Games.

Then, at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, USA, some of the Latin American delegates proposed the staging of regional Games for the Americas, and this led to the first meeting of the Pan American Sports Congress in Buenos Aires in August 1940.  Plans were made for the first Pan-American Games in 1942, but World War II got in the way of that.  However the plans were revived at a congress held in London during the 1948 Olympic Games and, at last, the Pan-Americans became a reality when, in February 1951, more than 2,500 athletes from 22 countries descended on Buenos Aires for the inaugural event.

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