Solomon Islands 2023 Live Stream: The Pacific Games, featuring athletes from 23 teams, take place in the Solomon Islands for the first time. Paris 2024 Olympic qualification quotas are available in several of sports. Discover what you need to know below.

The Pacific Games 2023 take place in the Solomon Islands from 19 November to 2 December 2023, and will mark the first time the country hosts Oceania’s continental Games in its 17th edition. While the Opening Ceremony is set for 19 November, competition begins two days prior on 17 November in four sports.

Watch Solomon Islands 2023 Live Stream

Twenty-four teams representing the region’s countries and territories will compete in 346 events across 27 sports disciplines – 22 Pacific Games Council members, plus invited teams Australia and New Zealand. The latter two did not compete at the Pacific Games until 2015 due to concerns that they would dominate events; both sporting giants still refrain from sending full teams to the Pacific Games for this reason.

Athletes from New Caledonia, a French territory in the Pacific whose athletes would represent France in most major international competitions, have dominated in the history of the Pacific Games. Fijian athletes are also ones to watch for, and while traditional sporting powerhouses Australia and New Zealand are sending smaller teams, they will still be expected to perform well.

Among the athletes taking part are Australia’s 2016 Olympic medallist Ryan Tyack in archery and Tokyo 2020 boxing medallist Harry Garside, Fiji’s Tokyo 2020 bronze-medal-winning women’s rugby sevens team, two-time table tennis Olympian Sally Yee from Fiji, and Samoa’s two-time Commonwealth Games boxing silver medallist Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali.

Winners of each of the 13 boxing weight categories, plus the gold medallists in the archery mixed team event, will each obtain a Paris 2024 quota spot. As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.

Veteran Solomon Islands weightlifter Jenly Wini has taken out the first three gold medals of the Pacific Games, just hours after she led the home nation into an opening ceremony alive with colour and joy. Australia will once again feature at the Games and SBS will provide exclusive coverage of the event, beginning with the opening ceremony on November 19 and concluding with the closing equivalent on December 2.

Wini lifted 82kg in the snatch to loud cheers, securing the Solomon Islands’ first gold medal, and followed it up with an Oceanic record of 108kg in the clean and jerk. She also received gold for the total weight lifted, as well as a gold in the Oceanic championships, which is running in conjunction with the Games.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was in the audience, cheering along as he drank from a coconut. The multi-sport event was originally scheduled to take place earlier this year but was postponed back in 2021 after Games organisers anticipated potential delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, more than 5,000 athletes from 24 Oceanian nations will descend on the Solomon Islands for what is the continent’s most significant sporting event to date. Held every four years, the 2023 Pacific Games will showcase the best athletes from across the Pacific Islands as they compete in 24 sports, with some even granting victors direct qualification to the 2024 Olympics.