Angola at the Lusofonia Games

The Lusophone Games is a multinational multi-sport event for countries that are Portuguese-speaking.[2] The name of the Games comes from the term Lusophone which is a name for Portuguese-speaking people.[3] The competition is organised by the Association of the Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committees (Portuguese: Associação dos Comités Olímpicos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa) (ACOLOP) which is an Olympic-related not-for-profit organisation.[2][4] The Lusophone Games is contested by Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Sri Lanka as well as the Indian state of Goa.[5]

Angola was a Portuguese colony between 1575 and 1975 before gaining independence in the Angolan War of Independence.[6][7] Portuguese is the national language of Angola.[8] Alongside the Lusophony Games, Angola also competes at other multi-sport games such as the Olympics.[9]

The first Lusophone Games was the 2006 edition held in Macau, which is an autonomous territory of China.[5] In total, 773 athletes competed at the Games with 58 of them Angolan.[2][10] The Angolan delegation was the fourth largest at the Games with Macau (155), Portugal (140) and Brazil (74) the countries with larger delegations than Angola.[10] The Angolan men's national basketball team reached the final of the men's basketball competition where they lost 59–53 to Portugal.[11] In the men's football competition, Angola won the silver medal after reaching the final, where they eventually lost to Portugal 2–0.[12] Angola won the bronze medal in the men's futsal.[13] Overall, Angola won a total of five medals with three silvers and two bronzes.[14] They finished seventh out of eleven countries on the medal table.[14]

The second Lusophony Games was held in Lisbon, Portugal.[2] At the Games, Angola won four gold medals.[15] The gold medalists were Cândido Cândido and Maria Celeste Manuel (both competing in the disabled athletics),[16] Antónia Moreira in Judo,[17] and the men's basketball team, who beat Cape Verde in the final of their competition.[18] In other team sports, Angola won a bronze medal in men's football, and a bronze medal in men's futsal.[19][20] Overall, Angola finished third in the medal tally with four golds, one silver and nine bronzes.[15] The two countries that beat Angola were Brazil and Portugal.[15]

The 2014 Lusophone Games was held in Goa, India.[21] Angola won five gold medals.[22] These were achieved by Osvaldo Morais (athletics men's 100 metres),[23] Alexandre João (athletics men's 10 kilometres),[23] Felismina Cavela (athletics women's 800 metres),[23] Antónia Moreira (Judo)[24] and Mario Rafael (Judo).[24] Angola won silver medals in both the men's and women's basketball competitions.[25] In total, Angola won 27 medals at the 2014 Games, with five golds, eight silvers, and 14 bronzes.[22] They finished fifth on the medal tally, behind India, Portugal, Macau and Sri Lanka.[22]