The excitement for the third Cook Islands Games will reach a fever pitch as the much-anticipated biennial event kicks off with a grand opening ceremony marching parade on Friday, October 4, at 6pm at the National Stadium in Nikao.

Over 3000 athletes young and old representing 11 individual island teams are grinding and gearing up to showcase their athletic abilities, sportsmanship and teamwork, representing the spirit of competition and camaraderie.

Each island team, Aitutaki, Atiu, Mangaia, Manihiki, Mauke, Mitiaro, Palmerston, Pukapuka, Rakahanga, Rarotonga and Tongareva, will bring its unique flair and determination, ready to compete in a variety of 25 sports codes.

This year’s games to be held from October 4 to 19 promise to be a celebration of culture and athleticism, reconnecting with friends and generations of family, uniting the island communities in the ultimate sports event – “The Pride of the Islands” Cook Islands Games.

The Cook Islands Games is organised by the Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee, the national federations, as well as the Island Sport Associations.

Lawn bowls will officially launch their event this weekend. This afternoon at 4pm, the Cook Islands Games 2024 Lawn Bowls festival will kick off with the official flag raising and opening ceremony with a march in parade at the Rarotonga Bowling Club.

Cook Islands News spoke with representatives from each of the islands who shared their views on their preparations and challenges for the upcoming Cook Islands Games.

Aitutaki

Team Aitutaki has registered over 500 athletes.

Regina Potini, president of the Aitutaki Sports Association, says: “This is the largest team we’ve ever assembled, and we are excited to represent Aitutaki across multiple disciplines in this year’s Games.”

Over 200 athletes from Aitutaki will be flying in to compete in around 60 per cent of the events.

Potini would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to the athletes who have helped out by paying their own airfares to and from Rarotonga.

Team Aitutaki has fundraised over $100,000 for various costs, including airfares, uniforms and other essentials.

“As a self-funded island sports organisation, we are incredibly grateful for the support we receive from our community here on the island, as well as in Rarotonga, New Zealand and Australia,” says Potini.

“This is the largest team we have ever taken abroad to represent our island, and we are honoured by the commitment shown by our athletes, officials, and the strength of our partnership with the Raro-Aitutaki contingent, well the largest of the Pa Enua travelling over.”

Twenty athletes will be flying in from overseas. They are all covering their own travel expenses.

One of the biggest challenges for Aitutaki has been logistics and travel costs – the cost of flights and accommodation – for over 200 athletes travelling from Aitutaki.

“Despite fundraising efforts and support from the community, covering these expenses has required significant effort and coordination,” says Potini.

Another challenge is team coordination: “With such a large team and various sports codes, coordinating training schedules, managing athlete registrations, and ensuring smooth communication between all team managers has been a major task. We are also working with our Raro-Ait contingent to ensure everything runs efficiently.

Potini points out that resource constraints are also among the challenges.

Being located in the Pa Enua, resources like training facilities and equipment are limited, he says.

“Ensuring our athletes are well-prepared and have the necessary gear has required creativity and additional planning to make the most of what we have.

“Despite these challenges, we are proud of the dedication and resilience of our athletes, team managers, and the wider community in making this participation possible.”

Team Aitutaki is most excited about the opportunity to showcase the talent, determination, and spirit of Aitutaki on a national stage.

“The Games provide a unique chance for our athletes to connect with others, compete at their best, and represent our island with pride,” says Potini.

“We are also looking forward to the sense of unity and community that comes with these Games. It’s a time when athletes, families, and supporters come together, and the bonds formed through sports are lasting. The Games gives us a platform to inspire the next generation of athletes and leaders within our community.”

Additionally, Potini is hopeful that each national federation will recognise the talent and skills Aitutaki athletes bring to the table.

“Our athletes are not just representing Aitutaki, but also showing the potential they have to contribute at higher levels of competition within their respective sports.

“Overall, it’s a celebration of sportsmanship, culture, and the hard work that everyone has put in to get to this point.

“We are very grateful to everyone for their support.”

Atiu

Team Atiu has over 200 athletes registered and is expecting 15 to 20 participants to fly in from the island.

Atiu’s Simiona Teiotu says challenges include the lack of funding, and the registration process for the accreditation for athletes.

“Honestly, a lot of our people have left the country since our last Games,” says Teiotu.

“I have asked for flexibility in naming our athletes for particular codes like a week or three days before the sports event…”

Teiotu says although it hasn’t been easy, Team Atiu is looking forward to the challenge “taking it day by day” during the Games.

“These are our Games, it is The Pride of the Islands.”

Mangaia

Team Mangaia, the reigning champions, has a massive 500 to 600 athletes on their registration list.

According to Annie Kauvarevai, 25 athletes will be coming from the homeland, and 10 from overseas.

“Our challenges include funding – it has been really difficult because we just had our 200 Bicentennial Arrival of the Gospel in June, so we didn’t focus on the Games until the end of June – such a short time to get ready,” says Kauvarevai.

“The registration process, getting all the IDs, passport copies were a nightmare, as well as the uniforms for all of us. But apart from the challenges it is good getting together again and we wish all the teams the best.”

As the reigning champions, Kauvarevai says she is “glad” that Mangaia is being represented this year.

Manihiki

Team Manihiki has over 480 registered participants and will be participating in all sports.

Danny Tixier says “although the majority of our team are athletes, there are some that wanted to be registered as supporters, parents, mamas, and papas, I guess these are our people that just wanted to feel included.”

Team Manihiki is thankful to have four athletes from the homeland flying in to join the team.

“Their participation is a vital part of our journey,” says Tixier. “For four, that’s over $14,000 in flights return.”

Due to the high cost of flying between Manihiki and Rarotonga, Tixier says it has become increasingly challenging to bring athletes from home.

“Over the years, our data reflects a steady decline in involvement from our people back home,” says Tixier.

“There are several contributing factors to this. For one, our people face the cost of $1800 for a one-way flight to take part, and the unpredictable nature of the shipping schedule adds further complications, making it hard.”

Team Manihiki is happy to have 13 participants from overseas, relying on their young people studying abroad.

“Although they are not officially classified as overseas participants, they still make the journey at their own expense. We are always deeply grateful for their commitment in supporting and representing their island.”

Tixier adds the challenges they face in preparing for these Games as a northern group island differ significantly from those of the rest of the Cook Islands.

“For us Manihikians, remoteness and the ongoing struggle to source resources and gather our people from our homeland have always been an issue,” he explains.

“Financing and our ability to raise money has also been particularly difficult this year. The shipping schedule can change, which impacted our ability to receive fish from Manihiki – a resource we’ve relied on in the past to sell and raise funds. This year, we weren’t able to, so we had to turn to other ways, like organising fun runs.

“We are so incredibly grateful to those who gave with such generosity. A heartfelt Meitaki Korereka to everyone who put money in the ice cream bowls; please know that every cent helped our people.”

Looking forward to the start of the Games, Tixier adds, “we all want the gold medals, but for me I really enjoy the times when we are sitting under the gazebos, and our young people are resting for their next games, our metuas are getting lunch ready for us and the Mums and Dads are chasing the babies who have run on the court or field. Those moments to me are Gold.”

Mauke

Team Mauke, which won the inaugural Cook Islands Games in 2020, has over 300 athletes who will be participating in 23 of the 25 sports codes.

Akaiti Purea says the support from the homeland “is amazing” with 60 athletes in total coming from Mauke.

Ten athletes from overseas are flying in, two arrived this week, and the furthest and youngest is coming all the way from the United Kingdom.

Purea says finding the time to get together and prepare as everyone is busy with work commitments, work trips, family, etc., was a major challenge.

“Fundraising - as there have been so many fundraisers this year not only for the games but also the schools, international sports, community initiatives,” she adds.

“And the unavailability of venues, it’s been hard to call trainings as we are having to share facilities with other islands and codes that are in season.”

Purea, who is supported by Lora Tauira and Harriet Raui, says they are looking forward to coming together and just repping the island and seeing the talent throughout the two weeks.

Mitiaro

The “small but mighty” Mitiaro team has 360 registered athletes from which a final number of 275 will be representing the island at the Games.

Leader of the group, Tashi Tutai says they will be competing in 24 sport codes.

About 10 or so athletes will be flying in from homeland Mitiaro, with 10 from overseas and they have nine imports in the team.

Tutai says the registration processes is probably the hardest task, closely followed by fundraising. 

“For the last Games, we did a lot of fundraising right up to a few weeks before the Games started – bowling Ambrose, golf Ambrose, selling food, raffles etc. 

“This year we tackled that challenge early with a monster raffle. We had a plan to just do one big fundraiser and leave the rest of the year to focus on actually training for the Games. So, our fundraising was completed in March this year.”

Tutai adds getting the athletes registered and ready for the Games is a challenge but with good sports code leaders and team work, things always fall into place.

“We are looking forward to watching everyone participate and enjoy the spirit of the Cook Islands Games,” says Tutai.

“It’s a long time preparing and although winning is always a great feeling, making sure our athletes welfare are taken care of and our people are actually enjoying themselves while they represent our island with pride is absolutely important.

“We would like to thank our Nukuroa community who always support our people in sport through sponsorship and donations, this is very much appreciated and goes a long way.”

This year Nukuroa is fortunate to have generous sponsors come on board. Tutai would like to acknowledge: Tereapii and Flora Vavia of Pa’s Store in Mitiaro for kindly sponsoring their youth U14 and U18 rugby sets; Stuart and Sylvia Nolan of Matai Sports Australia for the athletes outfits at a great price; MAD Design for the supporters apparel; Maru Willie and the Tupapa Maraerenga Sports Club for allowing all the Islands to use the Tupapa Dome for netball training as well as their field for rugby, touch and soccer codes and families who have generously given with all their heart

“We hope to do our island proud. We may be small but we are mighty,” adds Tutai.

Palmerston

Team Palmerston is having its flag raising ceremony and blessing of the uniforms on Monday.

Team leader Uirangi Marsters Insimo says they have 130 registered athletes, management team and coaches. 

Palmerston is participating in 15 codes - Aquatics, Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Oe Vaka, Cycling, Darts, Golf, Lawn bowls, Sailing, Squash, Table Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball, and Weightlifting.

Palmerton Island is a coral atoll about 500 kilometre, 270 nautical miles northwest of Rarotonga.

Insimo says most of their families from Palmerston are on Rarotonga, however, they are hoping for a ship in October to bring a few more over.

A couple of families, who are visiting Rarotonga for birthdays and funerals, have decided to stay on to help out with the Games.

She says their preparations for the Games has not been easy.

“As with the last two Games whilst we’ve had two years in between to prepare, everything is still a rush closer to the games,” explains Insimo.

“Communication has been key so we have tried to keep our management team updated with all the information regarding their respective codes.

“Everyone is looking forward to the camaraderie that is created during the Games.”

Pukapuka

Pukapuka has over 100 athletes who will be participating in 19 codes.

Talia Mataora says, “Unfortunately, we don’t have any athletes coming from Pukapukan/Nassau due to timing of the barge.”

“However, we are grateful that we have seven athletes from overseas flying over at their own cost to play for us.”

According to Mataora, a lot of patience was required in the preparations especially in having to look for players, ensuring players/athletes were registered and the information listed was accurate, and making sure deadlines were met for the team codes/players information as required by CISNOC.

“We are looking forward to enjoying the company from the other islands, having fun in our events, and meeting all our people,” says Mataora.

Rakahanga

Team Rakahanga comprises of 242 athletes, competing in 22 sport codes.

Given the airline capacity limitations, flight availability and airfare cost, Rakahanga has just one athlete from their homeland competing at the games, says manager Teina Taulu.

However, this year they have 32 overseas athletes who have blood ties to Rakahanga, joining them.

Taulu says there have been competing national events and code sports priorities to contend with in preparing for Cook Islands Games.

“Furthermore, a shifting pool of athletes to overseas for either employment prospects or better sports opportunities or purely for relocation purposes have also been a real challenge to sustain a competitive level,” she adds.

“And finally, families have made choices to play for another island of relative connections so as to identify being loyal to other blood ties of the family genealogy.”

Taulu says there is also the opportunity that the Games has to offer in sustaining towards nation building, solidarity of communal cohesion all of which contribute towards building resilience towards a healthy island state and forging a happy and cheerful population.

She adds Rakahanga looks forward to “a reunion with everyone that makes up Team Rakahanga globally; welcoming first timers in the team and meeting some or the first time, supporting and encouraging each other, and having a great time.”

Rarotonga

Team Rarotonga has a stunning 580 registered athletes, and will be competing in all codes.

Team leader, Kurai Foster says: “This year the people have come back to join the Rarotonga team whereas in the previous games there were only 200-odd of us. So, this year is a great comeback for us, from 200 to 500, just awesome.”

About 10 overseas university/school student athletes will be returning home to support the team.

“We want to have home-based players but overseas players are always welcome to our camp,” says Foster.

Similar to the challenges faced by other island teams, she says the registration process, including the passport details and photo ID, has been dramatic, as well as arranging uniform sizes, communication with team managers/athletes in certain codes, and getting everyone to attend meetings.

Foster is looking forward to having good challenges and winning medals and to have a “good, clean and happy games”.

“It will be a happy event mixing and mingling with our sister island athletes,” adds Foster.

She acknowledges William Taripo as deputy team leader, and Mairi Mokoroa Heather as the secretary, for their support.

Tongareva

Tongareva proudly returns to the Games this year, having missed the second event two years ago.

Team leader Tangata Vaeau says they have 143 registered athletes including seven coming from the homeland.

“We are happy to be back in the Games and will be participating in 13 codes,” says Vaeau.

Fundraising and securing good players were quite difficult, he says.

“Some thought we weren’t joining the Games again so they had already joined other islands.

“We are happy to participate and to get to know other players. These Games are good to raise the spirit of the sport.”

Pretty determined, Vaeau says, “We just want one gold, we are on a gold ambition.”