What do the Pan American Games mean to the several Island athletes who will be competing for Canada in the 2019 version over the next two weeks in Lima, Peru?
Depends whom you ask.
The Pan Am and Commonwealth Games are the two regional or special-interest multi-sport Games in which Canada competes in the quadrennials leading to the Summer Olympics.
The Pan Am Games, the XVIII edition which opens today in Lima, Peru, are a hit-and-miss affair.
For Victoria field-hockey players James Kirkpatrick, Maddie Secco and Anna Mollenhauer and Tofino surfer Mathea Olin, they are a direct qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and so are of prime and urgent importance.
Emma Entzminger of Victoria and her Canadian women’s softball teammates have a separate Americas regional Olympic qualifier for Tokyo next month at Softball City in Surrey.
But Canada will still send its best players to Lima, including Entzminger, and use the Pan Am Games as preparation for when they face most of the same teams again in the Olympic qualifier.
The Langford-based Canadian men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams have qualified for Tokyo 2020 through other routes, so Rugby Canada is not sending all its top-level players to the Pan Am Games. There is, however, a healthy dollop of familiar names headed to Lima such as Patrick Kay of Duncan, Luke McCloskey and Caroline Crossley, both of Victoria, former University of Victoria Vikes great Nathan Hirayama, Harry Jones and Kayla Moleschi.
Of note is the return of former UVic Vikes star Sean Duke to the men’s team after several years off.
Canadian women’s sevens head coach John Tait of Mill Bay will stay home while assistant coach Morgan Williams of Victoria runs the bench in Lima.
“We’ve got a great mix of talent on this Pan American Games team,” former Canadian men’s XVs World Cup captain Williams said.
“We have some exciting up-and-coming talent as well as World Series-experienced veterans. This will be a great opportunity for exposure and experience, especially as we look to build to Tokyo 2020.”
With no direct qualifying for Tokyo on the line, Triathlon Canada is sending a developmental team to Lima that includes rising young performers Desirae Ridenour of Cowichan Bay and Hannah Henry of Victoria.
The same goes for Cycling Canada, which is banking on Victoria’s Erin Attwell and Maple Ridge’s Maggie Coles-Lister picking up valuable multi-sport Games experience on the roads and track of Lima, Peru’s capital.
The Bear Mountain-based national mountain-biking team is concentrating on the World Cup season and not entering any cyclists in the Pan Am Games.
Elk Lake-based Rowing Canada is preparing for the world championships next month, which double as the Olympic qualifier for Tokyo, and so will send a developmental squad to Lima. People will be hearing from the likes of Jessie Loutit, Trish Mara, Luc Brodeur, Graham Peeters and Joshua King, with Lima providing them an introduction to the multi-sport Games experience for when their possible Olympian moment comes in Paris 2024 and beyond.
Canada’s top pool swimmers, including Islanders Mackenize Padington and Jeremy Bagshaw, are currently competing in the world championships in South Korea, and so a ‘B’ team is being sent to Lima. The Pan Am Games team includes Danielle Hanus, named this year as the UVic Vikes female athlete of the year across all sports, and Faith Knelson of Ladysmith.
It’s only a consolation prize if you treat it as such, said Rob Pettifer of Richmond, who is coaching the Canuck swim team in Lima.
“The Pan Ams will allow them to have a Games experience in a smaller capacity [than the worlds] and provide them with the opportunity to race internationally in a very competitive environment,” he said after the Canadian trials.
“There will be a number of [Pan Am Games] athletes that will have very realistic shots to make the team in Tokyo next year,” Pettifer said.
“It’s all about moving that line forward.”
Jon McKay and Chantel Jeffrey, both of Victoria, will be able to pull off the world championship and Pan Am Games double. Open-water swimming occurred earlier at the world championships and is now over, allowing both Islanders to be in Lima.
The world track and field championships are not until the fall in Doha, Qatar, so Athletics Canada can afford to send several veterans to compete in Lima, including three-time Olympic high-jumper Michael Mason of Nanoose Bay and 10,000-metre runner Natasha Wodak of the Prairie Inn Harriers.
The Island will be represented in the Pan Am Games boxing ring at Lima by two-time Canadian amateur heavyweight champion Bryan Colwell from Victoria, a leading candidate for the Canadian Olympic team to Tokyo 2020.
PAN AM NOTES: Men’s field-hockey captain Scott Tupper of Vancouver will be the Canadian flagbearer during the opening ceremony tonight in Lima. He said he carries with him into Estadio Nacional del Perú lessons imparted from former captain and two-time Olympian Rob Short, who will enter the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame this fall with the Class of 2019.
“Rob was my roommate when I was a young player and he was the one who instilled in me just how special it is to wear the Maple Leaf jersey,” Tupper said.
“He cared a lot about playing for Canada. I try to pass that on.”
