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Baltic Sea Games

The Baltic Sea Games was a multi-sport event between countries near the Baltic Sea. It was held on two occasions: first in 1993 then for a final time in 1997.

Estonian officials drove the creation of competition, organising a preliminary meeting with other nations in 1988. An agreement was reached at the inaugural Sports Conference of the Baltic Sea Countries in 1989 that Tallinn would host the first games, with the intention of the competition being to use sport to promote understanding and friendship among young people. Despite the break-up of the Soviet Union in this period, ten nations of the Baltic region signed on for the first games in 1993, comprising the three post-Soviet Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the three Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), plus Germany, Finland, Poland and Russia.

At the 1993 Baltic Sea Games, a total of 1177 athletes took part in the competition where 170 gold medals were awarded. Lithuania topped the medal table with 39 gold medals among a haul of 95, closely followed by Russia on 38 golds and 90 medals. Poland had the next most gold medals, with 23, while the hosts Estonia had the next highest medal tally, with 81.

The 1997 Baltic Sea Games followed on schedule, with the Lithuanian capital Vilnius serving as host. The competition was greatly expanded, with 2250 athletes present and 221 gold medals given out. Only volleyball was dropped from the sports programme, while ten new discrete sports added. All the original nations returned and Belarus competed for the first (and only) time. The hosts Lithuania repeated as medal table winners, with 62 gold medals and 178 medals in total. Newcomers Belarus had the next highest gold medal count on 58 and Russia had the second highest medal total with 129. Poland also performed well, with the fourth best tally in both gold medals and overall.

The Latvian capital Riga intended to host the 2001 edition of the games, but it was abandoned due to lack of support among the competing nations.