Indian Ocean Island Games Indian Ocean Island Games The Indian Ocean Island Games () is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Indian Ocean island nations. The Games was created by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1977 and currently gather the island nations and territories of Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte, Réunion and the Maldives. The number of athletes who participate has increased over the years, it went from 1000 athletes in 1979 to over 1500 participants in 2003 and 2007. From 1947 until 1963, a precursor called Indian Ocean Games Triangulaire was organized between Madagascar, Mauritius and Réunion. In
Indian Ocean Polynesians reached most of the far flung islands and atolls and populated them, almost all the islands, archipelagos and atolls of the Indian Ocean were uninhabited until colonial times. Although there were numerous ancient civilizations in the coastal states of Asia and parts of Africa, the Maldives were the only island group in the Central Indian Ocean region where an ancient civilization flourished. Maldivian ships used the Indian Monsoon Current to travel to the nearby coasts. From 1405 to 1433 admiral Zheng He said to have led large fleets of the Ming Dynasty on several treasure voyages through the Indian