Puerto Salgar

Puerto Salgar was born of the river and nearly succumbed to it: a river port on the Magdalena and terminus of the Cundinamarca Railway —it takes its name from former president Eustorgio Salgar—, it had to relocate its town centre in 1935 when the current itself began to erode the foundations of the original settlement. It stands in north-western Cundinamarca, in the Bajo Magdalena province, halfway between Bogotá and Medellín. Its most singular hallmark is aeronautical: since the 1930s its territory has hosted the Palanquero base, today the seat of Air Combat Command No. 1 (CACOM 1) of the Colombian Aerospace Force, one of the country's main military complexes. Across the Magdalena, linked by the railway bridge, lies its twin town of La Dorada (Caldas), so the river separates two municipalities and two departments at once.

Puerto Salgar's sporting bid is more programmatic than infrastructural: ACES framed its candidacy around the use of sport as a tool for social cohesion and the rebuilding of the community fabric, 'from football to less conventional disciplines', rather than around a catalogue of large venues. Along those lines, the municipality has committed to outdoor sporting events that make the most of its rural and riverine setting, such as the Travesía del Sol, an enduro race that draws more than 200 motorcyclists.

In December 2024, following an ACES América assessment visit carried out that August to Cota, Puerto Salgar and Samborondón, the municipality was named American Town of Sport 2025. Puerto Salgar thus joins the growing Colombian presence in the ACES América network —opened by Cali as American Capital of Sport 2019, the country's first— and shares the 2025 cohort with Cota. The title rewards a sporting model geared towards access and inclusion rather than elite competition.