The Micronesian Games (or Micro Games, MicroGames) are a quadrennial international multi-sport event within the Micronesian region. The Games were first held in 1969 in Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands). The 2010 Micronesian Games were initially due to be held in Majuro (Marshall Islands), until the hosts withdrew. The 2010 Games were hosted by Palau. [1] The Federated States of Micronesia won the bidding to host the 2014 Micronesian Games in Pohnpei State, and later won again against CNMI for the 2018 Micronesian Games, held in Yap State. [2] [3] [4]
After the inaugural 1969 edition, the Games were supposed to be a regular event. However, the second edition did not take place until 1990. Since then, the Games have been held every four years without fail.
However, after the 2018 Micronesian Games in Yap State, the Republic of the Marshall Islands was set to host the 10th edition of the Micronesian Games in Majuro; but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Majuro MicroGames was pushed back to 2023. Following a May 23 virtual meeting of the Micronesian Games Council, [5] the 10th MicroGames was moved to June 15-24, 2024 in Majuro. [6]
| Rank | Association | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Guam | 275 | 178 | 139 | 592 |
| 2 |  Palau | 265 | 257 | 208 | 730 |
| 3 |  Northern Mariana Islands | 186 | 197 | 150 | 533 |
| 4 |  Marshall Islands | 128 | 103 | 131 | 362 |
| 5 |  Pohnpei | 105 | 147 | 147 | 399 |
| 6 |  Yap | 53 | 69 | 69 | 191 |
| 7 |  Nauru | 52 | 18 | 20 | 90 |
| 8 |  Chuuk | 38 | 45 | 72 | 155 |
| 9 |  Kosrae | 19 | 19 | 55 | 93 |
| 10 | Ponape/Kusaie (defunct) | 17 | 16 | 10 | 43 |
| 11 |  Kiribati | 2 | 19 | 15 | 36 |
| Totals (11 entries) | 1,140 | 1,068 | 1,016 | 3,224 | |
| Edition | Year | Host | Start | End | Sports | Events | Nations | Top association | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1969 |  Saipan, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands | 4 July | 12 July | 6 | Palau | |||
| II | 1990 | Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands | 7 July | 15 July | 7 | Guam | |||
| III | 1994 | Hagåtña, Guam | 26 March | 2 April | 9 | Guam | [8] | ||
| IV | 1998 | Koror, Palau | 1 August | 9 August | 9 | Nauru | |||
| V | 2002 | Palikir, Pohnpei | 21 July | 30 July | 9 | Northern Mariana Islands | |||
| VI | 2006 | Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands | 23 June | 4 July | 9 | Guam | |||
| VII | 2010 | Koror, Palau | 1 August | 10 August | 8 | Palau | |||
| VIII | 2014 | Pohnpei, Pohnpei | 20 July | 29 July | 9 | Guam | [9] | ||
| IX | 2018 | Yap, Yap | 15 July | 27 July | 10 | Palau | [10] | ||
| X | 2024 | Majuro, Marshall Islands | 15 June | 24 June | 10 | Northern Mariana Islands | [11] | ||
| XI | 2026 | Nauru | Future event | [12] | |||||
Participants include four sovereign countries (the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, and Palau), a commonwealth in political union with the United States (the Northern Mariana Islands), an organized unincorporated territory of the United States (Guam), and the four constituent States of the Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae and Yap, which compete separately from one another).
These ten countries, States and territories are all located within the Micronesian region of Oceania.
All participants also take part in the Pacific Games, although the Federated States of Micronesia competes as a unified country there.
Athletes compete in the fields of athletics, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, fast pitch softball, association football, golf, slow pitch softball, spearfishing, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, va'a canoe, volleyball and wrestling, as well as the "Micronesian all-around", which includes events like coconut tree climbing and coconut husking.
The Micronesian Games thus combine events that may be found in other international competitions with events more specific to Micronesian countries.
The Micronesian all-around (sometimes shortened to Micro all-round) is an unusual multi-event contest practiced at the Micronesian Games, a kind of pentathlon featuring skills from a traditional island lifestyle. The 2018 version included the following events [13] :
The Federated States of Micronesia, or simply Micronesia, is an island country in Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania. The federation consists of four states—from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae—that are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise around 607 islands that cover a longitudinal distance of almost 2,700 km (1,700 mi) just north of the equator. They lie northeast of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, south of Guam and the Marianas, west of Nauru and the Marshall Islands, east of Palau and the Philippines, about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) north of eastern Australia, 3,400 km (2,100 mi) southeast of Japan, and some 4,000 km (2,485 mi) southwest of the main islands of the Hawaiian Islands.
The Federated States of Micronesia are located on the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The history of the modern Federated States of Micronesia is one of settlement by Micronesians; colonization by Spain, Germany, and Japan; United Nations trusteeship under United States-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; and gradual independence beginning with the ratification of a sovereign constitution in 1979.
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Polynesia to the east, and Melanesia to the south—as well as with the wider community of Austronesian peoples.
The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. The Imperial Japanese South Seas Mandate had been seized by the US during the Pacific War, as Japan had administered the territory since the League of Nations gave Japan mandate over the area from Imperial Germany after World War I. However, in the 1930s, Japan left the League of Nations, and then invaded additional lands. During World War II, military control of the islands was disputed, but by the end of the war the islands had come under control of the Allies. The Trust Territory of the Pacific was created to administer the islands as part of the United States, while still under the auspices of the United Nations. Most of the island groups in the territory became independent states, with some degree of ties kept with the United States: the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau are today independent states in a Compact of Free Association with the US, while the Northern Mariana Islands remain under US jurisdiction, as an unincorporated territory and commonwealth.
Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll has a land area of 9.7 square kilometers (3.7 sq mi) and encloses a lagoon of 295 square kilometers (114 sq mi). As with other atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro consists of narrow land masses. It has a tropical trade wind climate, with an average temperature of 27 °C (81 °F).
The flag of the Federated States of Micronesia was adopted on 30 November 1978. The blue field represents the Pacific Ocean. In an echo of U.S. heraldic practice, the stars represent the four federated states: Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae and Yap, arranged like the points of the compass.
This is a list of hospitals in Oceania for each sovereign state, associated states of New Zealand, and dependencies, and territories. Links to lists of hospitals in countries are used when there are more than a few hospitals in the country. Oceania has an area of 8,525,989 km2 and population of 41,570,842 (2018). The World Health Organization surveys of healthcare in smaller countries are used to identify hospitals in smaller countries.
The flag of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) consisted of a light blue field that contained six white stars centered in a circle pattern. The stars symbolized the six districts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands: the Marianas, the Marshall Islands, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Palau. The blue field symbolized freedom and loyalty.
The 6th Micronesian Games were held on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands from June 23-July 2, 2006. The Games featured competition in 15 different sports/disciplines.
The Northern Mariana Islands national football team represents the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in international men's football. The team is controlled by the governing body for football in the Northern Mariana Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, which is a member of the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) and since December 2020 a full member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The association is not a member of the world governing body FIFA, although it had applied for membership, and so while the national team is eligible to enter AFC and EAFF-run competitions, they are currently ineligible for global competitions such as the FIFA World Cup. As such, they do not have an official FIFA ranking. However, the team have been consistently ranked as one of the worst teams in the world on the Elo ratings and were in fact, in July 2016 rated as the worst men's senior international team in the world in a ratings system that also includes a number of other non-FIFA teams.
The College of Micronesia-FSM (COM-FSM) is a public community college in the Federated States of Micronesia. It began operation in 1963 as the Micronesian Teacher Education Center.
The 7th Micronesian Games was held August 1–10 in Palau.
Northern Marianas Athletics (NMA), also known as Northern Marianas Athletics Association or Northern Mariana Islands Track and Field Federation, is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Northern Mariana Islands.
The Federated States of Micronesia Athletic Association (FSMAA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).
The 8th Micronesian Games were held from July 20 to July 30, 2014, in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).
Athletics competitions at the 2014 Micronesian Games were held at the Pohnpei Track and Field in Palikir, Pohnpei, between July 21–24, 2014.
The 9th Micronesian Games were held from July 15 to July 27, 2018, in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. The venues included the Matson Sports Complex in Abay, and several locations around Colonia.
Football competitions have were first held at the Micronesian Games for the 1998 edition of the tournament. The event is open to the ten member federations of the Micronesian Games Council, a sub-regional member of the Oceania National Olympic Committees. The football tournament has been held at two subsequent games since 1998, in 2014 and 2018. Although a similar football tournament called the Micronesian Cup was held in 1999 and 2001, they were separate events as no Micronesian Games were held in those years.
The 10th Micronesian Games were held in Majuro, Marshall Islands. After initially being scheduled for July 25 to August 5, 2022, the competition was originally delayed a year because of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, including finishing construction of the New Marshall Islands Stadium. The games were held June 15-24, 2024.
The 2023 Micronesian Futsal Cup, commonly referred to as Micro Cup 2023, was the inaugural edition of the Micronesian Futsal Cup, the international futsal championship organised by Federated States of Micronesia Football Association for the men's national teams of Micronesia. It was the first competition of any kind for the FSM islands for five years and its first futsal event.
