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Mediterranean Games
The Mediterranean Games are the second international sports organization - apart from the Olympic Games - under the aegis of the IOC. The idea of < this organization dates from the mid-1930s, but the first time that the issue was laid before the IOC was in 1948 in London, from the representative of Egypt Mohammad Taher Pasha. Originally he addressed to the Greek representative Ioannis Ketseas, asking his assistance to his effort, and soon many members of the IOC coming from the interested" states saw favourably the idea of the Mediterranean Games. Therefore, at a special IOC meeting it was decided that the first Mediterranean Games be held in 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt.
In the first Mediterranean Games participated 750 athletes approximately from 10 countries (France, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Spain, Lebanon, Syria, Malta). The programme of the Games included 13 sports, 4 less than those of the Helsinki Olympics, which were held the following year (1952). The first four organizations (1951, 1955, 1959, 1963) did not include any female contests. That changed in 1967. The Mediterranean Games are organized every four years and up to the present moment they have been hosted in the following cities: 1951: Alexandria (Egypt), 1955: Barcelona (Spain), 1959: Beirut (Lebanon), 1963: Naples (Italy), 1967: Tunis (Tunisia), 1971: Smyrna (Turkey), 1975: Algiers (Algeria), 1979: Split (Yugoslavia), 1983: Casablanca (Morocco), 1987: Latakia (Syria), 1991: Athens (Greece), 1993: Narbonne (France), 1997: Bari (Italy), 2001: Tunis (Tunisia). The Games of 2005 will be held in Almeria (Spain).
Greece has organized the Mediterranean Games once, in 1991. 18 countries participated in the organization. The following organization was in 1993 instead of 1995, so that the Mediterranean Games be held a year prior to the Olympics. In 1961 was founded a special supervisory body, the International Committee for the Mediterranean Games, which has its permanent seat in Athens and whose secretary general is always Greek.
As has already been mentioned, the Mediterranean Games are organized under the auspices of the IOC and imitate the model of the Olympic Games as far as sports and contests regulations are concerned. However, the "ideology" of the Mediterranean Games is different and could be summarized in the concept of "Mediterraneity". The "Mediterraneity" refers to the "unity" and "homogeneity" of the Mediterranean area, to the economic, social, political and cultural communication among the countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea. Today, this is a prevalent idea, which was cultivated in the interwar period and was founded among other things on the work of important historians and social anthropologists, such as Fernand Braudel, John Campell and John Peristany.
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