Vital, everyday change people can see and feel: impact of a regional Games in the Solomons

When a multisport Games comes to one of the remote nations in the Pacific, it isn’t just sport. It’s a game changer.

“Unfortunately,” said Fiji’s Cathy Wong, a member of the ONOC Medical Commission, “government does not give money to sport in most countries.” In that part of our world, budgets are too stretched. Governments just – can’t.

So, she added, “We said – how can sport help government?”

The 17th edition of the Pacific Games, held in the Solomon Islands in November and early December 2023, makes the point, emphatically. And that point, in a word, is – legacy.

Supported by Olympic Solidarity’s World Programmes, in coordination with the Oceania Continental Programmes, those Games would not only train a new generation of first responders and medical personnel but also produce a first-for-the-Solomons mobile app that collects and shares medical-incident data.

As well, ongoing access for everyday use 14 defibrillators (AED) and 20 Basic Life Support bags (BLS), equipment bought for Games venues that, afterward, were donated to sites such as the National Referral Hospital.

The Solomons, northeast of Australia, are an archipelago of six major islands and some 900 smaller ones. Total population: 725,000. Roughly two-thirds: under age 34. The capital, Honiara, is on the largest island, Guadalcanal. About 150,000 people live in and around Honiara.

In many parts of the world, a BLS bag is ordinary. It might include, for example, bandages, medications, tape, trauma shears, a stethoscope, diagnostic instruments and more. In the Solomons, a BLS bag is not something you commonly saw before the Pacific Games, Potoi said.

During the Pacific Games, one of the defibrillators was put to use. A journalist from Fiji collapsed at the rugby stadium. A staffer who had been specifically trained for these Games knew what do: “I activated my training,” he would tell officials, resuscitating the journalist, who was taken to the hospital. Potoi said a moment later, “I said to my team if nothing else happens, I’m happy. That’s a success story...”

The start of that sloganeering can be traced to 2018, the year before the Pacific Games in Samoa – and even to 2015, and the Games that year in Papua New Guinea.

There, Potoi said, recalling the year-ahead meeting looking toward the Samoa edition, the look-back to Papua New Guinea saw “gaps” – training for first responders, and an overall coordination of resource so that all the athlete, coaches, officials and volunteers can have access to first aid if needed.

In Samoa, she said, sports and government officials, working together, created for 2019 a first-in-the-island model of how it could be done.

Logic: take that to the Solomons for 2023.

But at scale. In 2019, there were 3,500 athletes. 2023: 5,000.

And that, Potoi said, is all about three Cs: communication, capacity-building and coordination.

As Wong said, “To have high performance, you have to have high-performance support systems.”

Two weeks before the Games, Potoi said, some 100 people had been trained – police, fire, emergency teams, national hospital staff, Red Cross.

Also invaluable: the American Mercy Hospital Ship, nearby. Its ice supplies “saved the day,” Wong said.

Key lesson learned, both Wong and Potoi acknowledged: more sport-specific training for the next edition, in 2027 in Tahiti.

“Olympic Solidarity has a real legacy here,” Potoi said. “It not only helped these Pacific Games but left a legacy in Solomon Islands, strengthening current medical services.”