2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games

The 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games (French: Jeux paneuropeens et asiatiques 2015, Spanish: Juegos paneuropeos y asia-pacifico 2015), officially known as the XXIII Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games (French: XXIIIes jeux paneuropeens et asia-pacifiques, Spanish: XXIII juegos paneuropeos y asia-pacifico), and commonly known as Los Angeles 2015, was an inter-continental multi-sport event between 19 July and 20 August, with preliminary events starting at 16 July. These were the last games under the presidency of David Rodriguez, which, later on, replaced by Luis Bilozor the next year.

This is the third time United States hosted the Games, after St. Louis in 1923 and Indianapolis in 1951. This also acted as a test event for their bid for the Olympics. Los Angeles was selected as the host city unanimously in the 2008 PEAPG Session, and later signed the host contract in 2009.

The Games were marred by the plans to ban Russia entirely after the state-sponsored doping was prevailed 1 year ago in the Sochi Winter Olympics. The World Anti-Doping Agency has told the members of Olympic Region 1 as well as the president David Rodriguez, to ban them entirely, or let them enter with restrictions. David Rodriguez let them enter, however, contrary to that, the Paralympic Region 1 bans Russia entirely, which, to this day, still happens.

Even so, Russia still tops the medal table, with the host nation taking the 2nd place. The Games were a big success and left a great legacy for the city, which later won the bid for the 2028 Olympics.

11 days later, the 2015 ParaPan-European and Asia-Pacific Games would start.

Bidding process
Main article: Bids for the 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games

The American Olympic Committee were given a chance to host an another multi-sport event in order to serve as a test event for the 2024/2028 Olympics bid. However, outside of Los Angeles no one wanted to host the Games. In conclusion, Los Angeles was chosen anonimously.

The bids were presented on August 5, 2007, before the announcement in 2008. Los Angeles faced other bids from Athens, Rome, Baku, Moscow, Hong Kong, Montreal, Guadalajara, Cali, and Lima. This is the largest Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games bid since the bid for the 1999 edition.

The bids were eventually split into 5 rounds, when Los Angeles gained 50% of all the votes.

Venues
Main article: Venues of the 2015 Pan and ParaPan-European and Asia-Pacific Games

The venues used a mixture of new, existing, and temporary venues. Unlike the previous Olympics hosted by Los Angeles, the ceremonies and athletics events were not held in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Instead it was held in the more modern Los Angeles Kortz Stadium. This is due to the conflict surrounding the director of the ceremony Peter Jorgensen, who wanted a better and modern stadium.

Los Angeles is the most populous to host this event, totalling about 4 million. In order to fight traffic, the Organizing Committee made venues as near as possible. Some other major venues include: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Indoor Center of California, Forum Indoor, International Stadium, and PEAPG Stadium.

In addition, minority of the venues were located outside the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and also used the clustering system as it was in the London 2012.

Financing
The Games came under-budget from the US$40 billion target. Despite this, this is the most expensive for a Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games. Some financers declared that the Games were over-budget, however the committee never claimed that.

The majority of the budget were used for venues. The others include US$1.7 billion for marketing, $198 million for the combined ceremonies, and $589 million for managing the venues. The American government funded the Games for an additional US$10 biillion and, from the city, $624 million.

Freeways
There were several additional lanes constructed in freeways in order to accommodate higher traffic during the Games. During the lasting period of the Pan and ParaPan games, buses, special cars, and emergency services must use the two-lane road made especially for the Games.

There is also a new freeway called the LA Outer Ring Road, also known as "The Path". It circles the Los Angeles metropolitan area starting from the airport until the Athlete's Village and the nearby Kortz Stadium. This is provided to athletes, however there are a lot of traffic jams surrounding the freeway. However it took steps to free the traffic.

Trains
The government also created the whole new New York-LA fast speed train, which can speed up to 900 km/h using a special overhead tunnel. The east station is located on the new Los Angeles Main Station, while the west station is located near the Los Angeles Kortz Complex.

Airports
The government have also took improvements for their main airport, LAX. A new terminal was built on the north side of the airport, which could accommodate 30 million people, as well as new paved runway west to the terminal.

Athlete's Village
The 2015 Pan and ParaPan-European and Asia-Pacific Games was located on Venice, Los Angeles. It has an accommodation space of 43.065 athletes, coaches, officials, and judges. This village will be used again for the 2021 Winter Pan-European and ParaPan-European and Asia-Pacific Games, by cutting 40% of the space.

Above the athlete's village is one of the cauldron designed to be lit for the whole Games, as well as one of the cauldron spread from the Kortz Stadium. The cauldron was relit by Jorge Sanchez, and it became one of the most famous tourist attraction home and abroad during the Games. The athlete's village was also considered modern at the time - with a quality that reaches a 5-star hotel, even more to some analysts, a world class leading glass windows designed by the nearby neighborhood, and batiks to commemorate the Solo games.

Volunteers
45.000 volunteers were in need for this Games. Eventually, there were 102.901 unpaid volunteers at the end of the application. The volunteers were knows as "the United and the tomorrow". Marcel Tingker told that the volunteers "are a next generation workers who doesn't need the money and wanted to work happily". They could help the construction of the building, the opening ceremony, and do miscellaneous things. The volunteers reside at the Volunteers' Village beside the Athlete's Village. It accommodates 105.000 people.

Ticketing
Ticketing starts in both online and offline stores on summer 2014, and sold out half a year later. Tickets were priced starting at $25. Tickets were available in the game's official website (la2015.com), official co-stores, and in the stadium. People with the monthly LA Experience card can get these tickets for free with annual subscription, both for the Pan and ParaPan.

Countdown
A one-year countdown took place in the street of Two Rodeo Drive on July 19, 2014, when the countdown clock was unveiled at an event attended by the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Governor of California. It is a two-sided countdown with one side for the Pan and one side for the ParaPan. In a "watch together" event of the opening ceremony, when the countdown hits 0, there were fireworks burst in and out of the street. This video was shown in the opening ceremony.

Medals
In January 2013, it was announced that the medals will be made by the nearby LA Mint. 99% were made from recycled mint from the Lima Mint Factory. The 1% used from the local miners. The LA Mint said that it will take as early as 1,5 years and as long as a year.

The medals were finally unveiled in the Olympic Museum of LA in October 2014. The main artist for the medals is Chris Levine. It featured the logo as well as the mosaics and the place of the athletes. However, in the ParaPan counterpart, the place for the athletes were replaced with braille in order to contemplate the blind athletes.

Torch relay
Main article: 2015 Pan and ParaPan-European and Asia-Pacific Games torch relay

This edition for the Games featured the longest distance for such a multi-sport event. The torch was first lit in Olympia, Greece, then was brought to 10 cities in 5 continents, namely Rome, Paris, Jakarta, Beijing, Sydney, Auckland, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and Montreal, before entering the United States.

In the domestic leg, the torch travelled to several cities who have hosted the Olympics, the Pan Am Games, and the Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games. The last 10 legs were located in landmarks of Los Angeles, before entering the stadium in the opening ceremony. In total, there were 4.534 torchbearers when the torch travelled.

Opening ceremony
Main article: 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place at the Los Angeles Kortz Stadium, also known as the Los Angeles Forum, in Los Angeles, United States. It began at 20:15 (to match the year) until 01:39. It was filmed and produced by IGBS and OBS, as well as the host broadcaster, NBC.

One of the most expensive opening ceremony of all time, but still can't be unmatched by the 2011 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games, the ceremony was lauded by spectators and critics as "one of the greatest opening ceremony, period", Los Angeles set the standards of a blockbuster of a film and combining the techniques of opening ceremony, and some called it "a love letter to the land of free." Compared by the Solo 2011 opening ceremony, LA 2015 Organizing Committee reported that they spent $14 million less than the previous edition.

The show's creative director was Peter Jorgensen, a known director. Thanks to the stadium's construction, the opening ceremony can express whatever they wanted to. On behalf of all Americans, President David A. Tingker opened the Games.

Participating nations
All 182 nations in the Olympic Region 1 Council participated. Thanks to special rules about regions, now additional nations can participate in the Games. These nations were shown as per the Parade of Nations.

Sports and Calendar
Main article: Sports and chronological calendar of the 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games

A total of 447 events in 43 points makes this the largest as such, until it was for the next edition. Basque pelota was removed from this edition of the Games for some reason, and softball returned from its disappearrance. In order to comply with qualifications of World Games, this Games added 10 optional sports which are sumo, track speed skating, kickboxing, ju-jitsu, karate, muay thai, korfball, fistball, bowling, and sport climbing. Outside of this, like its predecessor, the entire Olympic sports program were competed and 24 of them served as the qualifications for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The calendar was also released in early 2015. It was featured that some preliminary events would take place 3 days before the opening ceremony. It ended with the closing ceremony on 20 August.

Medal table
Main article: 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games medal table and All-time Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games

Russia won the most medals and gold medals, followed by the United States, the host nation, and the People's Republic of China.

Doping
Main article: Cheating in LA 2015

While Los Angeles was hosting the ParaPan counterpart, the committee changed the medal table because of investigations involving doping in sports. Over 200 athletes were disqualified and some medals were stripped - the most for a multi-sport event - because of doping. Some changes were made for Russia, Russia didn't have athletes who cheated during the Games. Rodriguez said, "this is the biggest incremental change for this event, the guys at the ParaPan should not banned them," and called Russia's "best performance on its best athletes".

Closing ceremony
The closing ceremony took place once again at the Los Angeles Kortz Stadium, which started from 19.00 thru 21:53 PTZ (UTC -8), lasted almost 3 hours. The Games were declared closed and the flag was handed from the Mayor of Los Angeles to David Rodriguez to the Mayor of Guangzhou. There were sections to show China's culture.

Broadcasting
NBC is the domestic broadcaster, who have sold the rights to broadcast the Olympics since the 1980s. They provided programs in English, with their website hosting 70% of the television's content. NBC said that the viewership for the Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games increased 10% from the previous games. In addition, OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services) provided 1,300 hours of international broadcast, and it's available from the Olympic Channel and its website. And finally, IGBS (International Games Broadcasting Services), who had experiences on broadcasting the Asian Games in Asia and Europe, broadcast the Games for the first time in selected countries in Asia and Europe. ESPN provided programs in both Spanish and English, and, outside of the United States and English-speaking countries, French. The reason for the French is experimental. The Los Angeles Energy Center is the home for broadcasters for a while, located near the Kortz Stadium.

The viewership is expected to reach 5.6 billion at the end of the Games. This is an incremental increase unlike the Solo Games, which reached 5.3 billion.

Logo
The official logo was unveiled in early 2010. It featured a man with his hand looked like a cauldron, and the his feet which looked like a S, like the stadium of Forum which featured a S-like stadium.

Mascot
Main article: Bimble

After judging 60 submissions, Bimble was announced as the mascot in 2012. It's a porcupine with 182 sharp spines, representing each of the participating nations. It's a friendly mascot and appears in every event of the Games. The national newspaper gave positive reviews, ranging from "a great choice" to "the cute one".

Musics
Main article: The Official Album for the 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games, 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games: The Heating Competition, 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games: Official Musics of the Ceremonies, and 2015 Pan-European and Asia-Pacific Games: The Maestro of Everything

Several days before the Games, Sony Musics released "The Maestro of Everything" featuring 35 music that Sony Musics purchased the rights from. Then, Sony Musics, now in conjunction with the committee, released "The Heating Competition" featuring an additional 40 songs for the competitions during the Games. The final two albums, The Official Album and Official Music of the Ceremonies, were released after the closing ceremony of the Games, featuring musics of both the opening and closing ceremonies. Another Sony Music album, The Anthems, featured 170 national anthems in the medal ceremonies composed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. The musics are available online and offline.

The Complete Pack
There is also the complete pack called, "The Guide for LA 2015". It featured all moments from the Pan and ParaPan events, the direct-to-video version of the short movie The Beautiful Sea, as well as the 5 albums. It is available online and offline. If online, after purchased, the owner must enter the code after purchasing in la2015.com.

Sponsorship
Main article: Sponsorship in LA 2015

Major sponsors for LA 2015 include Samsung, Chevrolet, Wall's, Shell, Cisco, Microsoft, and AT&T.

Concerns and controversies
Main article: Concerns and controversies surrounding the Los Angeles 2015 Games

Los Angeles is the most traffic-heavy city to host as such a multi-sport event. The mayor has taken steps to remove traffic as much as possible, including new freeways, track lines, and improvements on airports.

There are a lot of scheduling conflicts for the Games, which can affect other multi-sport events, for example, the 2015 Pan-American Games had almost a week left when the Games started. This forced the organizing committee to change the calendar.