Hundreds of athletes will gather this Saturday in celebration of Samoa’s independence and in recognition of the contribution of sports to national development.

All sports under the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (SASNOC) will participate in the Samoa Games which gets underway this weekend. 

Samoa Games 2023 will hold its opening ceremony at 5 pm on Saturday afternoon at Apia Park Stadium and it will be open to the public free of charge.

The Chief Executive Officer for SASNOC, Tuala Mathew Vaea, said the convening of the sporting event is to celebrate Samoa’s many achievements in sports while recognising the country's strength as a sporting nation and its contribution towards development. 

“This celebration event really looking at 22-plus sports in conducting a variety of events and we hope to have a lot of fun leading up to our independence week,” he said

“We have the progress of our sports on the media and there are a lot of individual and team sports, contact and water sports, are all part of this journey and in giving the opportunity for our people to participate at the local and national level.

“Adding the contribution to our health and education through sports from the mass participation of schools out in the rural community and this is the overarching development that we’ve seen in many of our sports in engaging people in physical activity for health.” 

This is the Government’s way of helping to grow athletes so that they can compete at the highest levels and follow through on their dreams.

The 22-plus sports federations will host their own competitions from 20-27 May 2023 with Tuala confirming that they are expecting some overseas participants to fly in this week to join the celebration and compete against local athletes.

Family and friends will be able to watch at any of the different sporting facilities – from sailing and the outrigger at Mulinuu to boxing and weightlifting at Tuanaimato.

SASNOC will release the times and venues of each sporting event and has encouraged the general public to take this opportunity to watch the athletes who will be representing Samoa on the world stage.