What is Centro Caribe Sports?
Centro Caribe Sports is the regional sports organisation of Central America and the Caribbean. It owns and awards the Central American and Caribbean Games, which the organisation describes as the oldest surviving regional multi-sport competition of the Olympic movement, together with a beach edition of the same Games.[1] [2]
The organisation describes itself as "the oldest sporting organism in Central America and the Caribbean recognized by the International Olympic Committee" and states that its aim is to "generate high-quality sporting events promoting social development" under the principles of the Olympic Charter.[1] Those are its own words and are reported here as such.
It sits below Panam Sports geographically without being subordinate to it: its member National Olympic Committees are also members of the continental association for the Americas, and the Games it runs feed the Pan American Games and, through them, the Olympic Games.[7]
What does Centro Caribe Sports govern or do?
The body awards the Games to a host, sets the sports programme and admits the participating delegations, which enter through their NOCs. Its published portfolio is narrow and explicit: the Central American and Caribbean Games, the Central American and Caribbean Beach Games, and regional events around them.[1] [2]
Its Games function as a step on a qualification ladder rather than as an endpoint. The XXV edition in Santo Domingo brought more than 6,000 athletes from 37 nations and territories together in July and August 2026 and was framed by Panam Sports as a staging post towards continental and world championships and the Olympic Games.[8] That makes a medal at these Games a regional, not a continental, credential — a distinction that matters when the record is read alongside Olympic qualification routes.
This page could not retrieve the statutes of Centro Caribe Sports. No statutes document was reachable on its site, so the account of its powers rests on its own descriptive pages and on reporting of its assemblies, not on the governing instrument.
When was it founded, and when was it renamed?
Three dates need separating. The organisation's own account of the Games records that "on July 4, 1924, the act of creation of the Games was signed in Paris", after an initiative of the Mexican Olympic Society; the first edition followed in 1926.[2] Olympedia dates the founding of the body itself to 4 July 1924 as the Central American and Caribbean Sports Association (CACSO).[6]
It then operated for decades under two parallel names, ODECABE in Spanish and CACSO in English. The rename to Centro Caribe Sports was approved at an Extraordinary General Assembly held by videoconference with 37 countries and associate members present, and announced on 19 September 2020; the stated purpose was to end the dual Spanish/English naming.[3] [4]
The rename date is not given on the body's own site, which describes the current name without dating the change; this page therefore dates it on member-NOC and press sourcing.[1] [3] The headquarters is in Santo Domingo.[1] Panam Sports, reporting on the close of the Santo Domingo 2026 Games, names Luis Mejia as president of Centro Caribe Sports.[8]
How is Centro Caribe Sports recognised?
The instrument in the background is the Olympic Charter. Rule 3.2 allows the IOC to "recognise associations of NOCs formed at continental or world level" and requires that their "statutes are subject to the approval of the IOC".[5] Centro Caribe Sports is a sub-continental grouping rather than one of the five continental associations, and it is not named in the Charter's table of abbreviations, which lists only ANOC, ANOCA, OCA, PANAM SPORTS, ONOC and the EOC.[5]
What the Charter does carry directly is the NOCs' side of the relationship: Rule 27.7.5 gives every NOC the right to "take part in activities led or patronised by the IOC, including regional Games", which is the provision under which a regional Games of this kind is entered.[5]
Beyond that, the organisation asserts its own IOC recognition, stating that it is the oldest such recognised body in the region.[1] This page could not verify that claim against an IOC document and records it as the organisation's own statement.
What does it organise?
The Central American and Caribbean Games are its principal property. They have been held roughly every four years since 1926, with an interruption around the Second World War, which the organisation describes as making them the oldest regional international Games in the world.[2]
The XXV edition was held in Santo Domingo from 24 July to 8 August 2026, the city's second time as host after 1974, with more than 6,000 athletes from 37 nations and territories.[8] As of 12 September 2026 those Games are past. The body also runs a beach edition, the Central American and Caribbean Beach Games.[1]
Several other regional competitions cover overlapping territory without belonging to it: the Bolivarian Games and the South American Games are owned by other bodies, and the Pan American Games by Panam Sports.[7] A petition or record citing "the CAC Games" is citing this body's event and no other.
Who are its members?
Membership is made up of the National Olympic Committees and associated territorial committees of Central America, the Caribbean basin and the northern rim of South America, from Mexico through the Antilles to Guyana and Suriname, including non-sovereign territories such as Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.[2]
The member count is not stated consistently. The organisation's own Spanish "Quienes somos" page gives 35 countries and territories, its Games page gives 43 member territories, the 2020 rename assembly was attended by 37 countries and associate members, and 37 nations and territories competed at Santo Domingo 2026; Olympedia records 38 NOCs affiliated as of January 2026.[1] [2] [6] This page leaves the conflict flagged rather than picking a figure.
The difference between 35 and 43 is largely a question of whether associate members and territories that no longer hold IOC recognition are counted. Because entry to the Games runs through the NOC, the operative number for sporting nationality purposes is the set of IOC-recognised committees, not the wider list.[5]
References
- Centro Caribe Sports — Quienes somos / About us. Accessed September 2026.
- Centro Caribe Sports — Central American and Caribbean Games. Accessed September 2026.
- Belize Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association — ODECABE/CACSO is now Centro Caribe Sports, 19 September 2020. Accessed September 2026.
- Cubadebate — Odecabe cambio nombre y logo: ahora es Centro Caribe Sports, 19 September 2020. Accessed September 2026.
- International Olympic Committee — Olympic Charter, in force as from 3 February 2026 (PDF). Accessed September 2026.
- Olympedia — Centro Caribe Sports. Accessed September 2026.
- Panam Sports — Five days to go: the countdown to Santo Domingo 2026 has begun. Accessed September 2026.
- Panam Sports — Santo Domingo 2026: the successful and historic Centennial Games come to a close. Accessed September 2026.