#pan-am games

[atlanticinfocus]

From Faces of the 2019 Pan American Games, one of 24 photos. Ecuador's Angie Palacios competes in the Women's 64 kg Weightlifting event during the Lima 2019 Pan-Am Games, in Lima, Peru, on July 29, 2019. (Pedro Pardo / AFP / Getty)

[necrobioticspidergripper]

#108

My family sucks.

Someone's always bitching about something.

I can hardly wait till I'm out on my own. Traveling for my own little vacations.

Finally, my parents left to gamble, and my sisters' still mid-meltdown from this afternoon, so I'm left alone in the main room, just drinking and watching the pan-am gymnastic games.

Its pretty nice, rn tbh.

We wanted to beach it up today, but everywhere was sooo busy that we eneded up just going all the way around the lake 🤦 which took all day bc traffic was f*ckin cray... That was a bummer, sooo

I had to jump in and schedule the rest of our trip, bc apparently my parents have just been winging it this whole time 🤷

The plan is to hit up a beach asap tomorrow, then hopefully check in late at the next place, bc were staying as afar away as possible towards the end of the trip bc who tf knows.. Probably bc I wasnt in charge of booking.

Thank the gods I'm here, bc I'm sure theyd just end up on dateline otherwise. They are absolutely wild.

And there's no trails up here! Like wtf! How am i supposex to wander off in the middle of the night to eventually be mauled by bears , if theres no hope that I might make it back possibly ?!?!

[abitmoredetail]

[URBAN NOTE] "Urban buildings repurposed for student housing"

[URBAN NOTE] “Urban buildings repurposed for student housing”

The Globe and Mail‘s Paul Attfield reports on how the new George Brown College student residence used to be part of the Pan Am athletes village.

From the brand-new aquatics centre in Scarborough to the world-class cycling velodrome in Milton, the legacy of the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games can be seen right across the Greater Toronto Area.

Chief among the beneficiaries, though, is Toronto’s…

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[liroxiv]

okay, who’s going to make “Ask Kanye’s Microphone?”

[lastsummer8]

Pan-Am Games

The amount of coverage during the Pan-Am Games so far is despicable. I know it’s not the most popular games to be on TV but damn its impossible to find any event to watch.

I was trying to find some live events that happening now, and hoping to watch one of my friends who plays Squash. However, CBC is hosting news network shows until 1pm then Pan-Am games (I assume highlights only) until 3:30 for the Calgary stampede. TSN probably did not get broadcasting rights, so we’re stuck watching Wimbledon on all 5 fucking channels. SN which is normally pretty connected with CBC because of the Rogers TV deal is hosting the Tour de France, then poker, then the Blue Jays, then only after that at 8pm will they broadcast anything related to the games.

I get that it would be impossible to view all events happening at all the time, but at least give me the option that doesn’t involve me going online to find a link to watch it. 

I understand there is differences in the popularity of sports, and squash isn’t up at the top, or even close. But just give us the option of watching something other than men dive in the water and get poorly marked because their entry and a bit more splash than that other dude with ripped abs.

Canadians like to be proud of their sports and how well they do, but maybe we would be a better nation if we actually PLAYED some events on TV, you know maybe inspire younger kids to be active in a country with very poor activity rates and increasing obesity.

[newstfionline]

In an Indifferent Toronto, the Pan-Am Games Land With a Thud

By Ian Austen, NY Times, July 9, 2015

TORONTO--The new mayor is excited about his city’s big moment in the spotlight, but hardly anyone else seems to be.

After six years of preparation, construction, marketing campaigns, controversies and snags, the Pan-American Games officially open here on Friday, and some preliminary competition rounds are already in progress. But most Torontonians seem to be greeting the event with a shrug, and Mayor John Tory is so exasperated that he has taken to lecturing them about their attitude.

“I think the only sport that we’re not playing in the Pan-Am Games is sort of moaning and groaning,” Mr. Tory told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday. “And Toronto, on a regular basis, would be qualifying for a gold medal in that.”

Some residents are annoyed by how much the city has spent to get ready--the total budget is 2.5 billion Canadian dollars, or about $2 billion--and others by the risk of snarled streets. But many seem to be reacting to the arrival of the event in their city this week the way they would to a new tattoo discovered the morning after a wild night. The Pan-Am Games have landed in Toronto, it seems, with a thud.

“Other than having to deal with the traffic, I haven’t had any idea that the games are going to be going on,” said George Sakellis, a banker who was out shopping on Monday near a subway stop for the largest competition site, the Canadian National Exhibition fairgrounds. “I haven’t really felt the buzz for the games,” he said.

Barring some final work at the fairgrounds, the city was all set logistically. A new express rail link to the airport has been running, an industrial wasteland has been redeveloped and large numbers of enthusiastic volunteers were on hand for orientation and training.

But too few spectators seem to care. Only about 800,000 of the 1.4 million available tickets had been sold by Monday afternoon, despite a last-minute discounting program offered by a major bank. Local news media reports found that hotel rooms were still available in abundance. And the public discussion, such as it was, focused not on the events but on the disruption caused by blocking certain lanes on the city’s already congested expressways for the use of official games vehicles and high-occupancy vehicles.

“What they haven’t done is capture the hearts and imagination of the country,” said Brian Cooper, the president of the S&E Sponsorship Group, a sports marketing company based in Toronto. “When was the last time you stopped your summer to watch the Pan-Am Games?”

Canada is a country where winter sports predominate, and the Pan-Am Games have never been of immense interest, not even when they were held in Canada in 1967 and 1999. Toronto’s bid to host this year’s games seemed to have more to do with trying to lure the Summer Olympics than with any interest in uniting the Americas through sports.

The bid, mounted in 2009, was largely the work of Bob Richardson, a public relations executive and high-level Liberal Party strategist. Mr. Richardson was a driving force in an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and he was a co-chairman of Mr. Tory’s successful mayoral campaign last year, even though Mr. Tory is a Conservative. That campaign bridged party lines to defeat Rob Ford, Mr. Tory’s pugnacious, erratic, scandal-prone predecessor.

Mr. Tory and other public officials do their best to avoid answering questions about Toronto’s future Olympic aspirations, but Mr. Cooper and many others said that it was clear that the Pan-Am Games were sold to the Liberal provincial government of Ontario partly as a tryout for the larger event.

Once Toronto was chosen, the sparse attention the games attracted mostly involved controversy. Some residents, including the writer Margaret Atwood, were angered by a plan to replace a lawn at the University of Toronto with artificial turf for field hockey, which has a very small following here.

More troublesome were news reports that games managers had been both petty (claiming 91 cents in parking fees) and profligate (spending over $900 for drinks at a meeting) with their expense money. That, combined with a controversy over 7 million Canadian dollars promised to executives as bonuses, led to the dismissal of the organizing group’s chief executive at the end of 2013; he was replaced with a senior provincial official.

In a country where even minor misuse of public money can be the stuff of scandal, some observers think the Toronto games never got over the black eye.

“For the general public, there has been an apathy which is being driven by a dissatisfaction with the management of the games,” said Cheri L. Bradish, who teaches sports marketing at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Making matters worse, officials have been issuing early and frequent warnings to adjust travel plans because of the expressway lane closings, resulting in apocalyptic news coverage.

“You can’t do that for weeks and then turn around and say: ‘It’s going to be great,’ “ Ms. Bradish said.

Some of the sports in the games are popular, like soccer, but many are niche pursuits like archery and roller figure skating, and there is a general absence of celebrity athletes.

Even the games’ mascot, Pachi, presents a marketing challenge: In a departure from the usual cute and cuddly, Pachi is a porcupine, with 41 quills representing the participating countries.

[tomsprobike]

Two World Class Cycling Events will be close by in 2015 - Pan-Am Games in Greater Toronto Area in July and the World Championships are coming to Richmond, VA in September 2015.  Do you want to own a bike worthy of World Championships?  Stop by Tom's today from 10-8 and check out our Specialized S-Works line of Road and Mountain Bikes!

[gymgiants]

Realizing that the 2015 PanAm Games are in Toronto and for once I could actually go to a gymnastics meet that would have gymnasts that I would know and be excited to see! Canada isn't exactly the prime location for gym meets, so this is an exciting revelation :) I may or may not have submitted my name to get volunteer forms when the time comes...

Visions of being the person carrying the country sign in front of the gymnasts as they enter LOL