Unless you’ve been living in a cave on Mars with your eyes closed, you know the Pan-Am Games are arriving in Toronto July 10-26. We’re pretty excited about it, and here are some reasons why you should be excited too!
Would you take a look at these puppies?!
These medals are some of the most elaborate in the history of the Pan Am Games. The metals are supplied by Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation while the medals are produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. Barrick mined the metals from three of its operations across the Americas: copper from its Zaldívar mine in Chile; silver from its Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic; and gold from its Hemlo mine in Ontario. Each medal is roughly the size of a softball, and the gold medals weigh approx. 350 grams, so that’s a ton of bling. The back of each medal will have the standard English, French, and Spanish translations for “XVII Pan American Games,” but this year will be the first in history that will include a Braille inscription for both the Pan Am and ParaPan Am Games medals.
Then of course, theres the whole thing about the celebration of amateur sports. Basketball in Canada has taken huge leaps forward (pun intended) to improve over the last few years. With five former first-round NBA draftees from the GTA, there’s no reason to not be excited about this years squad.
So far 2013 first overall pick Anthony Bennett, and 2011 first round pick Cory Joseph, have confirmed that they will be participating in this summer’s tournament. We’re just waiting on 2013 13th overall pick Kelly Olynyk, 2011 fourth overall pick Tristan Thompson, and basketball’s wunderkind Andrew Wiggins, to update on their decisions of whether or not they will be participating. Fingers crossed! This would be the best time to prove to the Americas that we’re better than our single win performance back in 2011.
On to beach volleyball, which has never been considered one of Canada’s national sports, but we’re expecting big things from this years showing. Currently Canada has one of the best tandems, who are shooting up the rankings in hopes of getting the opportunity to compete in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Toronto’s Melissa Humana-Paredes, beach volleyball’s global rookie of the year, and Winnipeg’s Taylor Pischke started 2014 ranked in the 60s, and shot up to their current position of 23, becoming the top ranked Canadian duo. If that doesn’t get you excited about beach volleyball or the Pan Am Games, we’re not so sure that sports are right for you.
Along with our up-and-coming teams, we have a handful of reigning champions to be excited about:
The women’s football (soccer, for you noobs) team killed it with a bronze medal in the London Olympics. With Christine Sinclair in the lineup, there shouldn’t be any problem with bringing the gold at home. Also look for them in the FIFA Women’s World Cup this year.
The Men’s Rugby Sevens team is coming off of a dominating undefeated performance at the 2011 Pan Am Games. With Rugby Sevens becoming a recognized Olympic sport for 2016, there’s more on the line for Canada to repeat as Pan Am champs. Captain John Moonlight is also the most badass looking rugby dude around.
Canada’s baseball team is also looking to repeat their performance of 2011, where they defeated USA 2-1 to capture Pan Am Gold.
This is all just a sneak peek at what we have to look forward to at this years edition of the Pan Am Games. We could probably write a book about all of the world class athletes that Canada has participating in these games, but we’ll leave that to somebody else. Until then, be sure to head over to one of the events to cheer on our great athletes!
