1998 South American Games

VI South American Games

1998 South American Games logo

Host city

Cuenca

Country

Ecuador

Nations participating

Athletes participating

1,525

Events

24 sports

Opening ceremony

October 21, 1998

Closing ceremony

October 31, 1998

Officially opened by

Gustavo Noboa

Athlete's Oath

Francisco Encalada

Eliana González

Torch Lighter

Jefferson Pérez

Main venue

Estadio Alejandro Serrano Aguilar

< 1994 Valencia	2002 Brazil >

The VI South American Games (Spanish: Juegos Sudamericanos; Portuguese: Jogos Sul-Americanos) were a multi-sport event held in 1998 in Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador, with some events in Azogues (futsal), Gualaceo (boxing), Guayaquil (bowling, canoeing, sailing, triathlon), Paute (wrestling), and Quito (fencing). The Games were organized by the South American Sports Organization (ODESUR).^[1] An appraisal of the games and detailed medal lists were published elsewhere,^[2] emphasizing the results of the Argentinian teams.

The games were officially opened by Ecuadorian vice-president Gustavo Noboa. Torch lighter at the Estadio Alejandro Serrano Aguilar was Olympic gold medalist, racewalker Jefferson Pérez. In honour of the peace treaty between Ecuador and Peru soon to be signed on October 26, 1998, officially ending the recent Cenepa War, the athlete's oath was sworn jointly by Ecuadorian cyclist Francisco Encalada and Peruvian table tennis player Eliana González.^[3]

The games were initially scheduled for May 1998, but were postponed mainly because of severe flooding caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon which resulted in more than 300 deaths. For the first time, Guyana participated at the games. However, the Netherlands Antilles were not present, reducing the number of participating countries to 14, as in the year 1994.

Medal count

The medal count for these Games is tabulated below. This table is sorted by the number of gold medals earned by each country. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next, and then the number of bronze medals.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Argentina	101	60	74	235
2	Colombia	74	51	54	179
3	Brazil	50	59	44	153
4	Venezuela	50	47	29	126
5	Ecuador	33	46	70	149
6	Chile	29	54	46	129
7	Peru	9	23	38	70
8	Suriname	4	0	3	7
9	Bolivia	2	7	18	27
10	Uruguay	2	7	17	26
11	Panama	2	2	2	6
12	Paraguay	1	1	4	6
13	Aruba	0	0	2	2
14	Guyana	0	0	0	0
Total		357	357	401	1115