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One of the 3 jewels of the multi-sport triple crown of a Canadian athlete is the Pan American Games.
Athletes who have already used the maple leaf at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games to complete the package.
“I haven’t competed in the Pan American Games yet,” said Olympic butterfly champion Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ontario. “Just being in the Olympics environment is very different from attending a world championship in a hotel with swimmers. “
The 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, officially begin with the opening ceremonies on Friday, the initial festival kicked off on Thursday.
The Pan American Games will mean other things for the 473 athletes on Team Canada.
For some, it’s a chance to qualify themselves or their country for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Of the 38 sports the Canadians will compete in Santiago, 21 are Olympic qualifiers.
In sports such as boxing, breakdancing, climbing, surfing and tennis, athletes can get a direct ticket to Paris.
In others, athletes would possibly qualify Canada in a game for Paris and then compete for those one-off events or other avenues. The Canadian boxing hockey and water polo teams will be chasing gold medals that may also propel them to Paris.
Canada finished third overall (152, adding 35 gold), the United States (293) and Brazil (169) in Lima, Peru, 4 years ago.
Santiago is a measure of how world champion Tammara Thibeault of Shawinigan, Que. , has arrived from Lima.
He won bronze in Lima and was eventually reclassified to silver due to an opponent’s anti-doping rule violation.
“Last time at the Pan American Games, I definitely wasn’t at my best. I take full responsibility for that,” Thibeault said. This time, I’m much more prepared, much more focused. I’m a different boxer than I was 4 years ago.
The Pan American Games may be the first event of the multi-sport Games for an athlete. With Paris on the horizon in just nine months, Santiago is a dress practice session and testing track for more than 6,800 athletes from 41 countries in the Americas. and the Caribbean.
Santiago is hosting the Pan American Games for the first time. He won the 1975 and 1987 Pan American Games, but retired.
The sound of last-minute hammering and sawing reigned Thursday around the National Stadium, the venue for the opening and final ceremonies.
The Canadian team includes 100 Olympians, totaling 15 medalists, as well as 106 athletes who have won Pan American medals in the past.
Mac Neil, Olympic weightlifting champion Maude Charron of Rimouski, Que. and world hammer throw champion Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B. C. , are among Canada’s top performers.
Kristen Kit of St. Catharines, Ontario, coxswain of the women’s 8 who won gold in Tokyo. He made his Pan American Games debut in this race, as well as the new 8-man combined event.
Some of Canada’s biggest names — sprinter Andre De Grasse, decathlete Damian Warner, swimmers Summer McIntosh and Kylie Masse, and the Canadian women’s soccer team — are in Santiago.
In the case of soccer, Canadian players are not allowed to leave their foreign clubs for the Pan American Games. And while Santiago doesn’t offer an Olympic qualification component, the Pan American Games are a priority in a compressed time of preparation for Paris.
The COVID-19 pandemic that propelled the Tokyo Summer Olympics from 2020 to 2021 turned what was historically four years between the Summer Olympics into three years.
In swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo, for example, the World Aquatics Championships to be held in February in Doha, Qatar, will be the third world championships in as many years in what was once a biennial event.
The festival glut stands in stark contrast to the 2020-21 season, which lacked events due to the pandemic.
“It’s definitely a lot, but it’s fantastic to be back in this race as we haven’t been able to do that for a year and a half,” said Mac Neil. “You have to work out to compete, but a component of the festival is we also go over it over and over again so you can see what works and we miss that a lot.
“Especially being in Canada, before Tokyo, we didn’t have any chance to compete. I guess we’re just playing catch-up, but it’s crazy how instead of just getting back on track, we’ve tried to put on a lot of extra competitions. .
Mac Neil is one of 17 “athlete ambassadors” in Santiago along with Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade, Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino and BMX racer Daniel Dhers, among others. Mac Neil is featured in a promotional video “Sport Lives in You. “
“I would love to add a Pan American Games gold medal to my collection, but I probably wouldn’t try to push myself that way,” Mac Neil said.
Breaking, gaming and skateboarding make their debut at the Pan American Games in Chile. The latter two have been included in the Tokyo Olympic programme, while the station wagon will do so in Paris.
Vancouver’s Philip Kim, known as B-Boy Phil Wizard, won the men’s break world championship in 2022 and finished second this year.
Beach volleyball player Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson has been named Canada’s flag bearer for the Opening Ceremonies of the Pan American Games.
Toronto’s athletes will welcome Team Canada to the stadium tonight in Santiago, Chile.
Humana-Paredes, whose parents were born in Chile, and Wilkerson, a duo before this year, rank fifth in the world.
Both competed at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo two years ago and reached the quarterfinals with other teammates.
Wilkerson will make his debut at the Pan American Games in Santiago. Humana-Paredes competed at the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games with Taylor Pischke and fourth.
Men’s box hockey captain Scott Tupper, Canada’s flag bearer at the opening ceremonies of the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
SEE ALSO: Okanagan athletes win national title for Pan American Games
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