sa国际传媒 belongs to two worlds, one historical and one geographic, when it comes to the two multi-sport Games it takes part in below the Olympics. Both provide useful glimpses and pointers to the next Summer Olympics but they have vastly different cultural vibes and rhythms.
Last year it was West Midland legends Duran Duran in the opening ceremony and an ailing yet poignant Ozzy Osbourne leading Black Sabbath in the closing ceremony of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
The 473 Canadian athletes, 44 from the Island, will march into a far different beat tonight at National Stadium in Santiago, Chile, for the opening ceremony of the 2023 Pan American Games that will feature Colombian singing sensation Sebastian Yatra and a host of other Latin bands and performers.
sa国际传媒 is a top-three power in both Games, third behind Australia and England in the all-time Commonwealth Games medals table and third behind the U.S. and Cuba in all-time Pan Am Games medals.
As a training hub for several of sa国际传媒’s Summer Olympic athletes, Island and Island-based athletes have played roles in both the Pan Am and Commonwealth Games. In the three most recent Pan Am Games, Island athletes won 17 medals in 2019 at Lima, Peru, 20 medals, including 13 gold, at Toronto in 2015, and 21 medals at Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2011.
Twenty-one of the 39 sports and 61 disciplines in Santiago are direct qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics. So that makes the Pan Am Games of varied importance. They are paramount to Island athletes in sports in which Paris berths are at stake, such as field-hockey players James Kirkpatrick, Anna Mollenhauer, Kathleen Leahy of Victoria and Sara Goodman of Duncan and the likes of Boulders Gym wall speed-climbers Ethan Flynn-Pitcher and Michael Finn-Henry.
But Rowing sa国际传媒, Triathlon sa国际传媒 and Rugby sa国际传媒 – all based on the Island — are sending more in the line of developmental or depth teams because the Pan Am Games are not an Olympic qualifier in those sports.
Surf sa国际传媒 is also based in Victoria but its sport at the Santiago Pan Am Games is a qualifier for the Paris Olympics. Surfing has also provided the Island age bookends for the Santiago Games with 18-year-old Sanoa Dempfle-Olin and 47-year-old Catherine Temple, both from Tofino.
“I’m excited to be to going to Chile. These Games are a big event in the Americas and an opportunity to qualify for the Olympics,” said Dempfle-Olin.
Being in Santiago with her Tofino mentor Temple makes it that much more special for Dempfle-Olin: “I’ve known Catherine my whole life and looked up to her. We are super close and it will be so exciting being at the Games together.”
The second-oldest Island athlete in Santiago is 33-year-old veteran boxer Bryan Colwell, whose sport is also an Olympic qualifier for 2024.
“Punching my ticket to Paris is the intention I am going in with,” said Colwell.
“It’s going to be a tough competition with the U.S., Cuba and South Americans but I am going after them.”
They are among the 112 sa国际传媒 athletes in Santiago, second behind only Ontario’s 162.
There are exactly 100 Olympians on the Canadian team, including Victoria Boardworks diver Celina Toth among the several Islanders who were also at Tokyo 2020 or Rio 2016, and 15 Olympic medallists, including Victoria softball player Emma Entzminger.
There will be 423 medal events in Santiago beginning today through Nov. 5.
