PanAm Games - Spectators? Volunteers?

[La]

Friday: Saw track cycling. I'm hooked! I want to try it!! We won 2 gold and a silver.

Wednesday:
1) Volunteered at Cycling (road) Time Trial. was at a great spot at the top of a short, steep climb. Canadian woman (Jasmin Glaesser) got a flat right in front of me, but she continued to the top of the hill, and her support car swapped out her front wheel for her in a matter of seconds. That was probably the BEST place to get a flat since she didn't really lose much momentum. She ended up with Silver, 35 seconds behind the winner. I don't know if the wheel change took 35 seconds, and the American (who won) was the favourite coming into the race.
2) The men were up next and holy carp they cam whipping up that hill! A noticeable difference in speed from the women. The two Canadians (Houle and Mackinnon) looked really strong. Houle got the Gold, and Mackinnon the Bronze. Exciting!

Tonight: Off to see Athletics at York. Lanni Marchant is racing for Canada (she opted to do that race rather than the marathon). The top contenders are:
Desiree Davila (USA) 31:37 PB
Natasha Wodak (CAN) 31:41 PB
Lanni Marchant (CAN) 31:46 PB
Brenda Flores (MEX) 31:45 PB

I'll also get to see Andre DeGrasse (who just won Gold in 100m sprint) run in the 200m semi-final.

The other big medal event is the decathlon*. The final two events (Javelin and 1500m) are on the schedule. Damien Warner of CAN is currently in the lead with 7118 points, but less than 300 points separates him and the 2nd/3rd place guys from BRA. The other CAD, Patrick Arbour, is currently in 6th, 980 points behind Warner.

Sunday: Women's Baseball Gold Medal game, then Closing Ceremony, where I get to be down on the field with the athletes!!!!

*The last time I saw decathlon live was 1976 in Montreal when Bruce Jenner won the Gold!

[jonovision_man]

Sounds great! Seems like the city has really warmed up to the events generally. I went to the bronze medal baseball game, it was a barn-burner (walk-off home run to end it by Cuba after going into 9th down 6-3 , have softball tix for the weekend too. Kind of wishing I'd made more effort to see a few other things, but just hasn't worked out.

jono

[ian]

Heads up for anyone watching the mens' marathon on Saturday morning: Rob Watson has promised to make some intermittent hand gestures for those who wish to have a drinking game while they watch the race.

[Jwolf]

Heads up for anyone watching the mens' marathon on Saturday morning: Rob Watson has promised to make some intermittent hand gestures for those who wish to have a drinking game while they watch the race.

Rob Watson Podcast Episode #37: "Pan-Am drinking games"

[canalrunner]

Question: Why did a number of runners in the men's 200 metres wear watches on their wrist? What possible use could they be. Hey, my Garmin says this was a 200.5 metre course? Wow, look at my BP in the first 10 metres!! Too much Zone 3!!

[purdy65]

I listened to that podcast this morning and I've been looking for him in the village - but no Rob sighting yet - even though we are across from the Canada residents. His description of the atmosphere in the village is spot on. It is so much fun! The athletes are wanting to trade things for our volunteer shirts - I'm wondering what I could score?

So far I have seen handball (who knew it was such a fast and fun sport, although the diving rivals any soccer game). Track and field (we watched 6 Canadian medalists) on Tuesday.

I'm working in the village on Sunday so it will be interesting to see the atmosphere just before closing ceremonies.

[purdy65]

I listened to that podcast this morning and I've been looking for him in the village - but no Rob sighting yet - even though we are across from the Canada residents. His description of the atmosphere in the village is spot on. It is so much fun! The athletes are wanting to trade things for our volunteer shirts - I'm wondering what I could score?

So far I have seen handball (who knew it was such a fast and fun sport, although the diving rivals any soccer game). Track and field (we watched 6 Canadian medalists) on Tuesday.

I'm working in the village on Sunday so it will be interesting to see the atmosphere just before closing ceremonies.

[La]

Question: Why did a number of runners in the men's 200 metres wear watches on their wrist? What possible use could they be. Hey, my Garmin says this was a 200.5 metre course? Wow, look at my BP in the first 10 metres!! Too much Zone 3!!

I didn't notice that. Maybe for the same reason the female runners wear make-up and jewellery?

[La]

Tonight: Off to see Athletics at York. Lanni Marchant is racing for Canada (she opted to do that race rather than the marathon). The top contenders are:
Desiree Davila (USA) 31:37 PB
Natasha Wodak (CAN) 31:41 PB
Lanni Marchant (CAN) 31:46 PB
Brenda Flores (MEX) 31:45 PB

I'll also get to see Andre DeGrasse (who just won Gold in 100m sprint) run in the 200m semi-final.

The other big medal event is the decathlon*. The final two events (Javelin and 1500m) are on the schedule. Damien Warner of CAN is currently in the lead with 7118 points, but less than 300 points separates him and the 2nd/3rd place guys from BRA. The other CAD, Patrick Arbour, is currently in 6th, 980 points behind Warner.

*The last time I saw decathlon live was 1976 in Montreal when Bruce Jenner won the Gold!

Wow! What a great event last night!

We saw a female pole vaulter from Cuba set a new world leading (this year) height of 4.85m. She tried for 4.91 but missed (she'd already won the gold). Pole vault was at the opposite end of the stadium to where we were sitting (near the throwing events), so it was hard to see.

The 200m men were super fast and DeGrasse qualified for the final today.

The women's 10,000m was exciting! The entire pack was together for the first 18 laps or so, then some started to drop off the back. There was a pack of 6 together with about 6 laps to go (including both Canadians), then in the final 2 laps it was only 3, Lanni Marchant being one of them. There were some lead changes in that second-last lap, but then with less than 400m to go, Flores of Mexico surged passed the other two to take a commanding lead after the final turn. Marchant hung on for a strong 3rd place (nobody else was even close to those three). Desiree Davila (USA) took Silver.


Then came the final event of the decathlon, the 1500m. My friend, Brian, was working at the event for the CBC. He was a "stats" guy who was feeding information between the control room and the broadcast team telling them what what going on so that they'd know what to switch to and on-air talking points for the broadcasters (what a cool job!). Anyway, he came by to where we were sitting and told us that Warner needed 5:10 to win gold (basically, he had to not trip and fall), 4:40 for the Pan Am record, and 4:29.7 for the Canadian record (i.e., beating Michael Smith's 19-year-old record). Up until last night, Warner's PB for the 1500 was 4:29.85, so he had to shave 0.15 sec off his PB. Conditions were perfect last night, so it was doable. Well, he ended up shattering that record and ran 4:25-ish, a good 100m ahead of his nearest competitor. After the race, he was doing the traditional "victory lap" but it took him more than half an hour to make it half way around the track because he was stopping to shake hands, take photos, and sign autographs for everyone along the way.
(sorry, this one is a bit out of focus)

[eme]

Very neat

Jealous of you getting to see all that!

[La]

On Sunday, I'm joining BJH and friends for women's baseball. Currently, Puerto Rico and Venezuela are playing in semi final #1. Canada plays the USA in semi-final #2 at 7PM. Hopefully CAD can pull of a win against the USA so that I'll see them play for GOLD on Sunday! If not, they'll play for Bronze tomorrow.

[La]

Another great (but LONG) day of volunteering done. Other than a 45-min break between races when I could sit down for a bit, I was on my feet from noon until after 8PM. My feet are burning! I actually feel like I added value today as a volunteer (finally). I got to blow my whistle and wave my flag at every lap as the riders and cars came through, and gave out lots of information to spectators about the race, good places to watch, as well as how to get from point A to point B in the park.

CAD won Gold and Bronze in the women's race, and Bronze in the men's race. In the women's race, the 2-woman breakaway (including the eventual winner, Glaesser) managed to maintain their 50-sec gap on the pack until the end, and she won by half a wheel. The other CAD, Beveridge, won a sprint with 4 other riders to capture Bronze.

In the men's race, the pack stayed together for about 6-7 laps until a pack of 4 riders broke away and maintained a lead of (at one point) 70 seconds. By the final lap, the pack had closed that gap to just 25 seconds where I was (about 4K into the lap), and had completely reeled them in by 12K, with one CAD near the front of the pack. Another bunch sprint with 4 riders and Guillaume Boivin of CAD captured Bronze.

Off to the Gold Medal baseball game this afternoon. GO CANADA!!

[purdy65]

Sounds like a great day La! I'm off for my second last shift tonight. Should be interesting in the village with the gathering for the closing ceremonies. Must get out and about.

[La]

The closing ceremony was great! Pitbull was A-MA-ZING! So much fun!! I was jumping and dancing around (oh, my aching feet!). Kanye was WAY TOO LOUD! And I could feel the bass in my bones.

At first, they had the volunteers "penned" in until the athletes came in, then we were allowed to mix and mingle during the concert. That was fun. I was standing behind Adam VanKoeverden and Rosie MacLennan (who was sitting on top of some guy's shoulders).

[jonovision_man]

Sounds great, La! All in all a pretty successful event.

Olympics 2024?

jono

[BJH]

I went to watch some of the Parapan cycling yesterday. It was pretty awesome watching the tandems fly up the Ellis Park hill and watching the hand cyclists crank up it.

I have a question that Googling hasn't helped with. How does the sighted rider on a tandem get chosen? Are they restricted in any way in terms of ability or contribution?