Jeux de la Francophonie

Jeux de la Francophonie
Logo of the Games
Status	active
Genre	sports event
Frequency	every 4th year
Location(s)	various
Inaugurated	1989 (1989)
Website	www.jeux.francophonie.org

The Jeux de la Francophonie (Canadian English: Francophonie Games; British English: Francophone Games) are a combination of artistic and sporting events for the Francophonie, mostly French-speaking nations and former colonies of France, held every four years since 1989.

Editions

Year	Edition	Opened by	Date	Host city	No. of Athletes (nations)
1989	I	Hassan II	8–22 July	Casablanca & Rabat, Morocco	1,700 (39)
1994	II	François Mitterrand	5–13 July	Paris, Évry & Bondoufle, France	2,700 (45)
1997	III	Didier Ratsiraka	27 August – 6 September	Antananarivo, Madagascar	2,300 (38)
2001	IV	Adrienne Clarkson	14–24 July	Ottawa–Gatineau, Canada	2,400 (51)
2005	V	Mamadou Tandja	7–17 December	Niamey, Niger	2,500 (44)
2009	VI	Michel Suleiman	27 September – 6 October	Beirut, Lebanon	2,500 (40)
2013	VII	François Hollande	6–15 September	Nice, France	2,700 (54)
2017	VIII	Alassane Ouattara	21–30 July	Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire	4,000 (49)
2023	IX	Félix Tshisekedi	28 July – 6 August	Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo	3,000 (36)
2027	X	TBA	23 July – 1 August	Yerevan, Armenia	TBD

Events

Sports

There were four sports at the inaugural event in 1989: athletics, basketball, association football and judo. Handisport, handball, table tennis and wrestling were added to the competition programme in 1994. None of these four sports featured at the 1997 Jeux de la Francophonie, and boxing and tennis were introduced to the programme instead. Eight sports featured in 2001: the four inaugural sports, boxing and table tennis were included. Furthermore, parasports and beach volleyball competitions were held. Neither of these sports were included in 2005, with traditional style wrestling being demonstrated in addition to the six more established sports. The 2009 programme re-introduced beach volleyball.

• Athletics () : 1989, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023
• Basketball () : 1989, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023
• Beach volleyball () : 2001, 2009
• Boxing () : 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013
• Cycling () : 2013, 2023
• Road cycling (demonstration) () : 2017
• Disabled sports () : 2001, 2009, 2017, 2023
• Football () : 1989, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023
• Handball () : 1994
• Judo () : 1989, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023
• Table tennis () : 1994, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023
• Tennis () : 1997
• Wrestling () : 1994, 2013, 2017, 2023
• Traditional African wrestling () : 2005 (demonstration), 2013, 2017, 2023

Cultural

The Jeux de la Francophonie are distinctive, if not unique, among international multi-sport competitions for including competitive cultural performances and exhibitions, complete with gold, silver, and bronze medals for winning participants.

• Song ()
• Storytelling ()
• Traditional inspiration dance ()
• Poetry ()
• Painting ()
• Photography ()
• Sculpture ()

In 2001, street art was featured as a demonstration event.

Medal table

An all-time Jeux de la Francophonie Medal Table from 1989 Jeux de la Francophonie to 2023 Jeux de la Francophonie, is tabulated below. The table is the sum of the medal tables of the various editions of the Jeux de la Francophonie.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1		81	52	58	191
5		24	32	55	111
9		17	31	40	88
13	Switzerland	10	7	27	44
17		6	11	21	38
21		6	2	7	15
25		3	3	1	7
29		2	2	3	7
33		1	5	6	12
37		1	0	1	2
41		0	1	0	1
	0	0	1
	0	0	1
Totals (50 entries)		820	791	1,021	2,632

Participation

See also: Member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

The Jeux de la Francophonie are open to athletes and artists of the 55 member nations, 3 associate member nations and 12 observer nations of the Francophonie. Canada is represented by three teams: Quebec, New Brunswick (the only officially bilingual Canadian province), and a team representing the remainder of Canada. The Belgian team is restricted to athletes from the French-speaking areas of the country.

Participation has so far varied between 1,700 and 4,000 athletes and artists in the past 20 years.

55 member nations or governments

Albania Armenia Belgium French Community of Belgium Benin Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada New Brunswick Quebec Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo

Côte d'Ivoire Djibouti Dominica Egypt Equatorial Guinea France Gabon Greece Guinea Guinea-Bissau Haiti Laos Lebanon Lithuania Luxembourg North Macedonia Madagascar Mali Mauritania

Mauritius Moldova Monaco Morocco Niger Poland Romania Rwanda Saint Lucia São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Slovakia Slovenia Switzerland Togo Tunisia Vanuatu Vietnam

Seven associate member nations

Cyprus Ghana Kosovo

New Caledonia Qatar

Serbia United Arab Emirates

Observer territories, nations, and provinces

Argentina Austria Bosnia and Herzegovina Canada Ontario Costa Rica Croatia Czech Republic Estonia Gambia

Georgia Hungary Ireland South Korea Latvia Lithuania Malta Mexico Montenegro Mozambique

Poland Slovakia Slovenia Thailand Ukraine United States Louisiana Uruguay

See also

• Commonwealth Games
• Lusophony Games
• Mediterranean Games

External links

• Official site of the Comité international des jeux de la Francophonie (in French)