Jeux de la Francophonie

Jeux de la Francophonie
Logo of the Games
Status	active
Genre	sports event
Frequency	every 4th year
Location(s)	various
Inaugurated	1989 (1989)

The Jeux de la Francophonie (Canadian English: Francophonie Games; British English: Francophone Games (French-speakers' Games) or The Francophonie) are a combination of artistic and sporting events for the Francophonie, mostly French speaking nations, held every four years since 1989, similar in concept to the Commonwealth Games.

There were four sports at the inaugural event in 1989: athletics, basketball, association football and judo. Handisport, handball, table tennis and wrestling were added to the competition programme in 1994. None of these four sports featured at the 1997 Jeux de la Francophonie, and boxing and tennis were introduced to the programme instead. Eight sports featured in 2001: the four inaugural sports, boxing and table tennis were included. Furthermore, handisport and beach volleyball competitions were held as demonstration events. Neither of these demonstration sports were included in 2005, with traditional style wrestling being demonstrated in addition to the six more established sports. The 2009 programme re-introduced beach volleyball.

In 2001, street art featured as a demonstration event.

Jeux de la Francophonie are open to athletes and artists of the 55 member nations, 3 associate member nations and 12 observer nations of the Francophonie. Canada is represented by three teams: Quebec, New Brunswick (the only officially bilingual Canadian province) and another team representing the rest of the country. The Belgian team is restricted to athletes from the French-speaking areas of the country.