Portugal accelerates preparations for the 2027 Mediterranean Beach Games in Portimão and Lagoa
Portugal has entered a new phase of preparations for the 2027 Mediterranean Beach Games, which will take place from 11 to 18 September in the Algarve cities of Portimão and Lagoa. According to an announcement by the Portuguese Olympic Committee, the Coordination Commission of the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games has been in the Algarve in recent days to review the operational, technical and logistical progress of the organisation. The visit focused on budget planning, sports infrastructure, the competition programme, accommodation, transport, accreditations, security, medical services, anti-doping procedures, ceremonies and volunteering. This gave the Portuguese project, which from the beginning has been presented as a joint regional undertaking with national ambitions, a new review ahead of the final year of preparations.
This is the fourth edition of the Mediterranean Beach Games, a competition that brings together Olympic committees from the Mediterranean area and focuses on sports on the beach, at sea and on open water surfaces. The International Committee of the Mediterranean Games states that the Games were launched by a decision of its Executive Committee in 2012 in Mersin, and the first edition was held in 2015 in Pescara. After that, the hosts were Patras in 2019 and Heraklion in 2023, while Portimão and Lagoa will take over the hosting role in 2027 as the first Western European location in the history of this competition. The official website of the Portimão-Lagoa 2027 project confirms that these are the fourth Mediterranean Beach Games and announces the official online platform of the event.
The technical review covered key parts of the organisation
According to the Portuguese Olympic Committee, the two-day working visit of the Coordination Commission was dedicated to monitoring preparations for the competition that will be held next year. In the introductory part of the visit, the president of the Portuguese Olympic Committee, Fernando Gomes, emphasised the importance of coordination and preparatory work, highlighting the scale of the event and its expected impact on Portuguese sport and the Algarve region. The secretary general of the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games, Iakovos Filippousis, thanked the hosts for their reception before the start of the technical meetings. According to the COP announcement, members of the Coordination Commission, the Organising Committee and the expert services of the municipalities that will organise the Games also took part in the programme.
On the first day, discussions covered the strategic development of the competition, sports venues, equipment, marketing, communication, digital platforms and the visual identity of the Games. The afternoon was reserved for topics that directly affect the day-to-day functioning of a major multi-sport event: accommodation for participants, catering, traffic flows, accreditations, protocol, ceremonies and volunteer services. The Commission also visited operational locations, hotel capacities and coastal zones connected with the competition in order to check the readiness of infrastructure and services on site. The second day focused on services for national Olympic committees, security issues, medical services and anti-doping.
Portimão and Lagoa were awarded the hosting rights by acclamation
The hosting of the 2027 Mediterranean Beach Games was officially awarded to Portimão and Lagoa on 8 September 2023 at the General Assembly of the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games in Heraklion, Crete. The Portuguese Olympic Committee then announced that the decision had been made by acclamation, following the presentation of the joint candidacy of the two Algarve cities. The bid was presented at the assembly by the secretary general of the Portuguese Olympic Committee, José Manuel Araújo, and the evaluation commission had previously visited the proposed locations in the Algarve in August. According to the COP, the report highlighted very good beach areas, a sufficient number of hotels, the possibility that most movement could be done on foot, experience in organising major international events, proximity to Faro airport, a solid sports programme and the support of national sports federations.
The then president of the Portuguese Olympic Committee, José Manuel Constantino, assessed that the CIJM decision represented recognition of the ability of the Portuguese Olympic Committee and the municipalities of Portimão and Lagoa to organise such a competition. Representatives of local authorities emphasised that the joint candidacy combined sport, tourism and local development. After the hosting rights were awarded, a contract was signed between the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games, the Portuguese Olympic Committee and the municipalities of Portimão and Lagoa. The document formalised the organisational framework for an event that Portuguese stakeholders present as one of the largest multi-sport projects ever entrusted to Portugal.
Competitions will be held on beaches and on the Arade River
The sports programme will be distributed across several locations in Portimão and Lagoa. According to the Portuguese Olympic Committee and the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games, competitions are planned on the beaches of Praia da Rocha and Alvor in Portimão, on Praia Grande in Ferragudo, which belongs to the municipality of Lagoa, and on the Arade River, the natural link between the two host areas. This arrangement allows a large part of the programme to be held in a coastal area that already has tourist, hotel and transport infrastructure. The organisers particularly emphasise the proximity of accommodation and venues, because the possibility of walking should reduce traffic pressure and contribute to a more sustainable delivery of the competition.
For visitors who will follow the event live, the organisation across several coastal locations means that the sports programme will take place in an extremely tourist-oriented part of the Algarve, a region known for its beaches, maritime activities and large number of seasonal guests. Therefore, along with the sports schedule, transport, security protocols, accreditation systems and accommodation capacities for delegations, officials, media and spectators will also be important. Readers planning to travel to the event can keep track in good time of accommodation offers in Portimão and Lagoa, especially because the competition is held in the first half of September, when the Algarve still records strong tourist demand.
The programme has been expanded to eleven sports and disciplines
According to a report by the Portuguese sports daily O Jogo, which refers to the Lusa agency and the notice of the Portuguese Olympic Committee, the sports programme for 2027 includes eleven sports and disciplines. The programme includes beach volleyball, beach tennis, beach soccer, beach handball and beach wrestling, followed by sailing in the kite and iQFoil disciplines, open water swimming, rowing, sea kayaking, triathlon and padel. The same source states that the inclusion of two demonstration disciplines, obstacle racing and motosurf, is also planned. The programme was presented by the executive director of the Portuguese Olympic Committee and the Organising Committee, Pedro Farromba, during the extraordinary General Assembly of the CIJM in Alvor.
In an earlier announcement on the awarding of the hosting rights, the COP announced the participation of athletes from 26 national Olympic committees that make up the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games. This information fits into the broader format of the Mediterranean Beach Games, because the CIJM emphasises that the competition brings together athletes from Mediterranean Olympic committees from three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. In practice, this gives the event a strong regional identity, but also international breadth, because the Mediterranean sports space includes very different coastal, island and continental countries. For Portugal, 2027 will therefore be an opportunity to use the hosting role not only as a sports project, but also as a platform for promoting the Algarve and national organisational capacities.
Tourism and the economy are an integral part of the project
Preparations for the Games have already been linked earlier with Portuguese tourism and economic institutions. The International Committee of the Mediterranean Games announced in April 2025 that the Portuguese Olympic Committee had met with the secretary of state for tourism, Pedro Machado, the president of Turismo de Portugal, Carlos Abade, and the representative of the Ministry of Economy, Gonçalo de Sampaio. The aim of the meeting was to strengthen cooperation between the Olympic movement and state officials responsible for tourism and the economy. According to the CIJM, the participants expressed readiness to support major sports events that promote the Portuguese brand, create a significant economic impact and have international reach.
Fernando Gomes then, according to the CIJM announcement, emphasised that the 2027 Mediterranean Beach Games are an important opportunity for the joint positioning of Portugal as an international stage of sporting and tourism excellence. Such a message explains why the organisation is not viewed only through the sports calendar, but also through its effects on the hotel sector, hospitality, transport, destination promotion and the local economy. Portimão and Lagoa are already established tourist areas, but a multi-sport event with delegations from across the Mediterranean area can extend interest in the destination beyond the peak of the summer season. In doing so, the organisers will have to align tourist attractiveness with the technical requirements of the competition, participant safety and sustainable management of space.
Preparations are entering a sensitive final stage
The latest technical visit shows that preparations are entering a phase in which the general concept must be transformed into an operational system. Planning the budget, sports infrastructure, logistics, communication, digital platforms and identity of the Games is no longer just an administrative procedure, but a prerequisite for an event in which every service must be connected with the others. Accommodation must be aligned with transport and accreditations, medical and anti-doping services must be coordinated with the sports schedule, and security plans with the movement of competitors, officials and the public. That is why the visit of the Coordination Commission carries special weight: it serves not only protocol supervision, but also the early detection of possible weaknesses.
For Portimão and Lagoa, in the coming months it will be crucial to confirm that the advantages highlighted in the candidacy can be maintained in real conditions of implementation. This particularly relates to the availability of hotels, pedestrian connectivity between locations, management of coastal space and cooperation among local services. The Algarve has experience with major tourist and sports events, but the Mediterranean Beach Games bring a different organisational challenge because they simultaneously connect multiple sports, multiple competition zones and multiple national delegations. The success of the project will depend on how well sports standards, CIJM expectations, the needs of the local community and the tourism potential of the region are aligned.
The Mediterranean Beach Games get a new stage
The Mediterranean Beach Games were created as a complement to the traditional Mediterranean Games, with an emphasis on sports that naturally belong to beaches, the sea and the coastal way of life. According to the CIJM, the competition is held every four years and brings together Olympic committees of the Mediterranean area. The previous hosts were Italy and Greece, countries with a long Mediterranean sporting tradition, and the Portuguese edition will expand the geographical reach of the event toward the Atlantic coast. This very fact gives Portimão and Lagoa additional visibility, because the Games remain a Mediterranean project, but are held on the southern Atlantic coast of Portugal, in a region strongly connected with the sea, tourism and international transport.
Official data show that the organisers have already defined the basic locations, dates and sports framework, while the latest working visit confirms that attention is now shifting to implementation details. If the announced plans are carried out as expected, the 2027 Games could be an important test of Portugal's ability to connect multi-sport events with regional development, sustainable mobility and international promotion. For athletes, Portimão and Lagoa will be a competition stage, for the Algarve an opportunity for additional visibility, and for the organisers a demanding test in which success will be measured by the quality of infrastructure, security, logistics and participant experience.
Sources:
- User's source material – initial topic of the article about the acceleration of Portuguese preparations for the 2027 Mediterranean Beach Games.
- Comité Olímpico de Portugal – announcement about the technical visit of the Coordination Commission to the preparations for Portimão-Lagoa 2027. (link)
- Comité Olímpico de Portugal – official announcement on the awarding of hosting rights to Portimão and Lagoa, dates, locations and the initial sports programme. (link)
- International Committee of Mediterranean Games – description of the history of the Mediterranean Beach Games and previous editions. (link)
- International Committee of Mediterranean Games – announcement on the cooperation of the Portuguese Olympic Committee with tourism and economic institutions. (link)
- Portimão-Lagoa 2027 – official website of the project of the IV Mediterranean Beach Games. (link)
- O Jogo / Lusa – report on the sports programme with eleven sports and disciplines and demonstration disciplines. (link)