Island Games

The Island Games (currently known as the NatWest Island Games for sponsorship reasons) are an international multi-sports event organized by the International Island Games Association. The upcoming games will be held in Jersey in from 27 June to 3 July 2015 with 24 competing islands or island groups with around 3000 competitors who will compete in 14 sports.^[1]

History

The Island Games began in 1985 as the Inter-Island Games, as part of the Isle of Man International Year of Sport, and were intended to be a one-off sporting celebration only. Geoffrey Corlett, who became the first Games Director, not only contacted the islands surrounding the United Kingdom, but also encouraged the countries of Iceland and Malta, the territories of Faroe Islands, Greenland, Saint Helena, the Channel Islands and others to participate. Initially, fifteen islands with 600 competitors and officials took part in seven sports,^[2] with the total cost of staging the Games being put at £70,000. The track and field events were held on an eight-lane grass track, a far cry from the current games, which now use a synthetic track in a stadium capable of holding 10,000 spectators. So successful were the Games of 1985 that it was decided to hold a similar event two years later.^[3]

Game venues

Faroese stamp to the 1989 Island Games: Rowing

Football

Year	Games	Host Island	Country
1985	I	Isle of Man	British crown dependency
1987	II	Guernsey	British crown dependency
1989	III	Faroe Islands	autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark
1991	IV	Åland	Finnish autonomous province
1993	V	Isle of Wight	English county
1995	VI	Gibraltar	British overseas territory
1997	VII	Jersey	British crown dependency
1999	VIII	Gotland	Swedish county
2001	IX	Isle of Man	British crown dependency
2003	X	Guernsey	British crown dependency
2005	XI	Shetland	Scottish council area
2007	XII	Rhodes	Greek island
2009	XIII	Åland	Finnish autonomous province
2011	XIV	Isle of Wight	English county
2013	XV	Bermuda	British overseas territory
2015	XVI	Jersey	British crown dependency
2017	XVII	Gotland	Swedish county
2019	XVIII	Minorca	Spanish island[4]
2021	XIX	Faroe Islands	autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark

Sports

The host country chooses between 12 and 14 different sports for their games from this list:

Medals table

A list of IGA members (including current and former members) by total gold medals earned. Where there is a tie, silver medals decide placement, then bronze. As of 2011, every nation that has participated in the Island Games has won at least one medal.

Island Games medal count

Pos	Country	01 !	02 !	03 !	Total
1	Jersey	418	408	387	1203
2	Isle of Man	343	333	353	1029
3	Guernsey	335	349	363	1047
4	Gotland	208	173	170	551
5	Faroe Islands	162	155	183	500
6	Åland	153	160	134	447
7	Isle of Wight	150	138	182	470
8	Cayman Islands	65	44	49	158
9	Saaremaa	60	72	71	203
10	Bermuda	56	54	64	174
11	Iceland	50	45	41	136
12	Rhodes	50	43	43	136
13	Gibraltar	44	48	74	166
14	Shetland Islands	37	52	81	170
15	Minorca	28	25	33	86
16	Orkney	19	31	37	87
17	Ynys Môn	19	30	38	87
18	Greenland	15	19	26	58
19	Prince Edward Island	6	6	9	21
20	Malta	6	2	2	10
21	Western Isles	3	5	13	21
22	Sark	2	8	6	16
23	Falkland Islands	1	5	11	17
24	Hitra	1	2	0	3
25	Frøya	1	1	2	4
26	Alderney	0	2	3	5
27	Saint Helena	0	0	2	2

From 2001, competitors from islands with a population of fewer than 10,000 (Alderney, Falklands, Frøya, Hitra, St. Helena and Sark), also compete for Gold, Silver and Bronze 'Small Island Certificates', with restrictions that Silver is only awarded if at least 3 compete, and Bronze only if at least 4 compete.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Island Games.

• International Island Games Association
• The 2007 Island Games was hosted in Rhodes, Greece