Thi is How the III South American Youth Games Rosario 2022 Will Be

The growth and development of the professional athletes of the future, those between 14 and 18 years old, is largely evaluated in the South American Games, which in 2022 arrive with their III edition in Rosario (Argentina) and in 22 Olympic disciplines to be played from April 28 to May 8.

The South American event is an important juncture for athletes to assess their Olympic aspirations. The event is part of Odesur's strategic planning for the development of Olympic sports in this area of America with a program of competitions similar to that of the Olympic Games.

Such planning optimizes the possibility that some of the participants will say present in Paris 2024. In fact, in the most recent editions of the Olympics, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, several young people who went through the South Americans, stood out and even got on the podium.

22 disciplines in one place

The specialties that are part of the youth event calendar are: Athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, climbing, fencing, futsal, artistic gymnastics, judo, weightlifting, Olympic wrestling, swimming, figure skating, speed skating, rugby 7 , skateboarding, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, archery, triathlon, and beach volleyball.

The novelty of these games is that they will take place entirely in one place: Parque Independencia, which will become the Parque Único Suramericano. In said enclosure, the seven clusters will be: Hippodrome, La Rural, Paseo 21, El Lago, Municipal Stadium and the Provincial and Newell's Old Boys clubs.

In these clusters, in turn, the 17 scenarios in which the competitions will take place will be distributed, as well as the operational and logistics centers, such as the International Press Center (MPC) and the International Television Center (IBC), all located in the Hippodrome.

With regard to rugby 7, hockey 5 and archery competitions, they will be held in the central oval of the Hippodrome, while combat sports will be held in the three pavilions of La Rural and in the Arena Stadium, for example, beach volleyball and beach handball will be held.

In El Lago, not only the Inauguration (Thursday, April 28) and Closing ceremonies (Sunday, May 8) are scheduled, but also triathlon and cycling, while Provincial will receive futsal, tennis and artistic gymnastics.

One of the sports that, in turn, will have more action will be futsal, since the competition will have a longer development than many other disciplines, from May 5 to 8, and will be held in both branches, being reserved for those born between the years 2004 to 2007. This sport can be enjoyed in the covered stadium of the Provincial club.

Also read: The most prominent Latinos in baseball history

Rosario, the hostess

Rosario, the second most important city in Argentina and the birthplace of great soccer players such as Lionel Messi, Ángel Di María or Javier Mascherano, was chosen as the venue for its good prior organization in events such as the Women's Hockey Champions Trophy, the Rugby Championship and even the Dakar Rally Camp.

It will be, in turn, the first time that Argentina hosts them as a country, since in the first edition it was Lima (Peru) selected and in the previous edition the chosen one was Santiago de Chile. Rosario very well combines the character of a large city with the tranquility of not being the capital as well as a rich sporting tradition.

This year the appointment will be held on a date very different from that of the two previous editions. The one in Lima 2013 was held from September 20 to 29, and had a schedule of 19 sports, plus a participation of 14 nations and 1004 athletes, while in Santiago de Chile 2017 20 sports were played, one more, with 14 countries and a growing number of athletes, 1248 in total.

Historic event

The communications director of these games, Diego Mussetta, left a message about what Rosario 2022 is expected to achieve. “Rosario is preparing to experience perhaps the most important event in its history. In this case it is from the sports field, a unique event. We imagine that it will be much bigger than the 2014 Dakar. But not only that, from the organization we aim at what a massive participation and a unique experience means”, he pointed out.

This edition corresponded to the year 2021, but due to the pandemic it was not held and its natural cycle of four years had to be skipped. In previous editions, Brazil has been the dominant player with a total of 293 medals, 133 of them gold  while Colombia is second with 189 and 75 gold, Argentina is third with 166 (50), Venezuela is fourth with 139 (32) and Chile fifth with 129 in total and 29 of the yellow metal.