Just wanted to stop by and congratulate Toronto for hosting its first Pan Am Games. Winnipeg has hosted twice so your halfway there to playing with the big boys!
On a serious note, while the games are no longer as prestigious as they once were back in the 60s and 70s (ie. US sent its A-team to the 1967 Pan Ams in Winnipeg including Mark Spitz aka the Michael Phelps of his day), they still draw their fair share of past and future medallists and notables.
At the 1999 Pan Am Games this included:
Emilie Heymans (diving)
Blythe Hartley (diving)
Jose Contreras (baseball)
Craig Paquette (baseball)
Mark Mulder (baseball)
Brad Penny (baseball)
Milton Bradley (baseball)
Adam Kennedy (baseball)
Todd McCulloch (basketball)
Manu Ginobli (basketball)
Brian Walton (cycling)
Clara Hughes (cycling)
Tanya Dubnicoff (cycling)
Alison Sydor (cycling)
Ian Miller (Equestrian)
Nicolas Gill (Judo)
Marnie McBean (Rowing)
Oscar Salazar (taekwondo)
Steven Lopez (taekwondo)
Simon Whitfield (triathalon)
De Rosario (soccer)
Landon Donavan (soccer)
Curtis Myden (swimming)
Joanne Malar (swimming)
Marianne Limpert (swimming)
Bernard Williams (track)
Donavan Bailey (track)
Glenroy Gilbert (track)
Chris Huffins (decathlon)
Marla Runyan (track)
Daniel Igali (wrestling)
There are more athletes who competed at the 1999 Pan Am games that medaled at previous or future Olympics. Trust me, it will be similar with the 2015 Pan Ams in Toronto.
It should be noted that 2 of the 3 Canadian gold medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics were awarded to Daniel Igali and Simon Whitfield, both participants and medallists at the 1999 Pan Am games.
Overall, the 1999 Pan Am games left me with some pretty good memories. I attended Boxing gold medal finals, Swimming finals and prelims, track and field including the 100 m final, soccer gold medal match, baseball gold medal match and the closing ceremonies.
All the events I attended were sold out with the exception of the closing ceremonies (might have been a couple thousand short) and the swimming which might have been a few hundred short. My best memories were:
- the swimming finals with Canada winning a couple gold medals - great atmosphere in the crowd but man was it humid in the building!
- the baseball finals with the US facing off against the Cubans - another setting with a great atmosphere with the Cuban fans pounding away at there steel drums in the outfield seats throughout the game
- the Forks packed every single night until the AM even on the weekday evenings
-closing ceremonies with Guess Who having their first reunion concert in over 20 years...back when that was a thing.
Only disappointment for myself was douche bag Donavan Bailey who did the absolute bare minimum to earn his $1 million paycheque from the Pan Am games comittee choosing only to participate in the 4 * 100 metre relay.
As I remember, there was supposed to be some sort of qualification for the 100 metre event. Apparently Bailey, being the rockstar that he was, thought he shouldn't have to go through this qualification process so he used this as an excuse to not participate in the event at the Pan Ams. Keep in mind that Bailey had suffered his achilles injury only a year and a half prior so maybe he was worried that he would not end up looking too good against mostly B level competition.
The 100 metre event was also marred by an injury to Bruny Surin, another top sprinter who was planning on participating in the the 100 metre prelims and presumably the final. IN case anyone forgets, Surin was one the top sprinters in the world at the time, top 10 maybe even top 5. So in the end what should have been one of the highlights, possibly even the highlight event of the 1999 Pan Am games turned out to be just another event at those games...but as I said previously I was generally left with warm memories.
Hope those who attend the games in Toronto and Hamilton are left with the same feelings.
Prev
Linear Mode
