Hosts Greece, Italy and France are the three countries with the largest delegations at the 3rd Mediterranean Beach Games “Heraklion 2023”, which will be held between September 9-16 in the Municipalities of Heraklion, Hersonissos and Malevizi with the support of the Region of Crete.

The Hellenic team, represented in all 13 sports, consists of 60 men and 49 women, a total of 109, while Italy trails with 102, of which 58 are men and 44 are women.

The third largest delegation comes from France with 79 people, followed by Spain with 64.

The top six rounds up with Croatia which comes to Heraklion with 58 athletes and Tunisia, the first non-European country on the list, with 56.

Montenegro and Malta are represented with only one athlete in Karate Beach Kata and Beach Rowing sprint respectively, while Andorra will eneter the men’s Beach Volleyball competition with a single team.

The full country list:

Country Entries (Men-Women)

Greece 109 (60+49)

Italy 102 (58+44)

France 79 (46+33)

Spain 64 (36+28)

Croatia 58 (30+28)

Tunisia 56 (32+24)

Egypt 55 (34+21)

Cyprus 45 (25+20)

Morocco 43 (33+10)

Portugal 40 (22+18)

Algeria 30 (21+9)

Kosovo 26 (19+7)

Slovenia 10 (4+6)

San Marino 6 (3+3)

Syria 6 (4+2)

Turkey 4 (2+2)

Albania 4 (3+1)

Serbia 4 (2+2)

Lebanon 4 (0+4)

Libya 4 (4+0)

North Macedonia 4 (4+0)

Monaco 4 (3+1)

Bosnia/Herzegovina 4 (2+2)

Andorra 2 (2+0)

Malta 1 (1+0)

Montenegro 1 (1+0)

The sport with the most participating nations, 17, is Beach Volleyball, and then comes Karate Beach Kata with 14 and Finswimming and Rowing Beach Sprint with 13.

Beach Soccer is the sole male-only sport, as the required number of women’s teams was not met, a fact affected the initial gender balance as well.

The Games will officially open with the opening ceremony, which will take place at the Karteros Beach Sports Center on September 9 at 20:30.