The 2026 South American Games are set to begin with Santa Fe, Argentina as the host city. The games will run September 12 through 26 and are set to welcome over 4,000 athletes from 15 countries, competing across 39 venues in the Santa Fe province. 

It will be the third time the games take place in the country, after the 1982 games in Rosario and the 2006 games in Buenos Aires. With 658 athletes featuring in 59 of the 61 events set to take place, Argentina will have its largest South American Games delegation. 

Sprint canoeist Rubén Rézola and field hockey player Sofía Cairó will lead the Argentine delegation as the flag bearers in the opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony is set to take place in Rosario at the National Flag Memorial, with free public access. It will be headlined by musical performances by Soledad Pastorutti, Abel Pintos, Luck Ra, and others, alongside emerging artists from Santa Fe and Rosario. 

The show will start at 6 p.m. and be broadcast on the sports channel TyC Sports.

Las Leonas aim for another gold

Among the biggest Argentine chances for gold medals will undoubtedly be the women’s and men’s field hockey teams, Las Leonas and Los Leones. For the hockey teams, the stakes will be a bit lower as Argentina has already secured a spot in the 2027 Pan American Games with both teams.

Just seven of the twenty players who lifted the World Cup in the Netherlands will be part of the national team at the South American Games, led by Sofía Cairó and Zoe Díaz, the World Cup’s Best U23 Player.

“They asked us before the World Cup if we wanted to play in the Games, and of course we said yes — we want to represent Argentina in every tournament,” Díaz told........

© Buenos Aires Herald