Limón

Limón is the capital city of the province of the same name and Costa Rica's great Caribbean city, set almost at sea level on the Atlantic coast. A port by calling and history, it concentrates the country's main port complex —Moín and the container terminal of APM Terminals— through which much of Costa Rica's foreign trade passes. It is, moreover, the heart of Afro-Costa Rican culture, with an identity of its own forged by Caribbean migration, which permeates its music, its cuisine and its daily life. The canton of Limón had 116,457 inhabitants in the 2022 census, within a province of a little over 470,000.

The city's main sporting venue is the Juan Gobán stadium, inaugurated in 1964 and renovated in recent years ahead of the Juegos Deportivos Nacionales. Limón is, above all, a nursery of elite athletes: from there came the sprinter Nery Brenes, world indoor champion in the 400 metres, and the para-athlete Sherman Güity, double gold medallist at the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games, alongside several international footballers. Its historic football club, Limón FC, reached the First Division before folding in 2022.

In 2026, ACES recognised the province of Limón as American Region of Sport, a title of regional scope that arrived amid full sporting effervescence: in January of that year the province hosted the 42nd Juegos Deportivos Nacionales, with thousands of athletes from across the country spread over several cantons. The award recognises the use of sport as a lever for development and cohesion in one of the regions with the greatest sporting talent in Costa Rica.