The South American Games are a series of multisport events that take place every four years, directed by the South American Sports Organization (ODESUR), where the countries of South America and some of Central America and the Caribbean participate. The first edition was held in November 1978, in La Paz, Bolivia. The first two editions are known as Cruz del Sur.

The South American Games were born thanks to the initiative of ODESUR in 1976, an institution that was established with the impulse of the then president of the Bolivian Committee, José Gamarra Zorrilla. He promoted the celebration of a congress in La Paz and, after obtaining the support of the leaders of Argentina, Peru, Paraguay and Chile, founded the South American Sports Organization, on March 26, 1976.

Two years later and with the aim of disseminating Olympic sports on the continent, at another congress in La Paz in 1978, they chose Bolivia -specifically the city of La Paz- as the venue for the first edition of the Games, with the name of Cruz Del Sur Games. That year, La Paz hosted the Games from November 3 to 12, with the participation of 480 athletes from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, who competed in 16 sports: Athletics, Basketball, Baseball, Boxing, Cycling , Equestrian, Fencing, Soccer, Artistic Gymnastics, Judo, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Swimming, Tennis, Shooting and Volleyball.
 

The South American Fire

The fire is lit in an ancestral ceremony by amautas or Andean sages in the temple of Kalasasaya, in the city of Tiwanaku, 72 kilometers northwest of La Paz in front of the walls of this ancient pre-Inca civilization, it was the spiritual and political center of the culture of the same name before the Incas, in a ritual to the Pachamama or Mother Earth.

The flame is the symbol of the union of different nationalities, languages, religions and races for a peaceful world, a tradition of the Olympic Games of Greek Antiquity where a fire was kept burning in the venues of celebration of the Ancient Olympic Games that has its similar in South America: the South American Fire.

However, since fire was part of the worship of the gods, there was a need for it to be pure. For this reason, the ancient Greeks used a skaphia, an "ancestor of the parabolic mirror." This device concentrated the sun's rays, causing intense heat; placing a torch in the center of the skaphia lit the sacred fire. Although the tour of the Olympic torch does not have an ancient precedent, in Athens a similar event called lampadedromía - torch races - was held in honor of certain gods.

In a way, the tradition of the tour is also inspired by the Olympic truce, when messengers left Elis to announce to other city-states the exact date of the competitions, in addition to establishing the ekecheiria - sacred truce - in which the city-states they had the obligation to stop the war operations one month before and during the period of the Olympic Games so that athletes and spectators could travel in "relative safety"

According to the Olympic Charter, the Olympic flame "is a flame lit in Olympia under the authority of the IOC" and an Olympic torch is a portable torch approved by the committee and whose function is the combustion of the flame. It also establishes that the organizing committees will be in charge of transferring the flame to the Olympic stadium.

The last course of the torch and the lighting of the cauldron are mandatory protocol elements of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Like the shutdown of the cauldron which, in addition to being the last formal event, is the one that marks the definitive end of the Games.