Pan Am: Canada wraps up with 137 medals

Jill Henselwood

Canadian Press

7/29/2007 6:21:00 PM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CP) - Canada heads home from the 15th Pan American Games with more medals than the team captured four years ago, and with several Beijing Olympic berths secured.

Just a year before the 2008 Summer Games, the Pan Ams were an Olympic dress rehearsal for some athletes, a chance to qualify for others, and an opportunity to gain some much-needed international experience for all.

But a theme of these Games was also about instilling a culture of winning - and in that Canadian officials say they were a big success.

"Winning is a skill and once you've done it once you get hungry. I've been to the dessert part of the buffet table and I want to go back," said Alex Gardiner, the Canadian Olympic Committee's senior director of Olympic programming. "The more times you can get on a podium, whether it's here, the Commonwealth Games, world university games, a national championship, it's a huge confidence builder and it tells you, `OK, now I can compete with the best."'

After 18 days of competition, in more than 40 sports, Canadians marched to the top of the podium 39 times in Rio and captured 137 medals (39 gold, 43 silver, 55 bronze). That topped the 129 medals Canada won at the 2003 Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Canada finished third overall in total medals at Rio, behind the U.S. and Brazil, and fourth in gold medals won. The United States led the way with 237 (97-88-52), Brazil had 161 (54-40-67), while Cuba totalled 135 (59-35-41).

Canada also locked up eight Olympics berths - the men's team in field hockey, Avianno Chao of Toronto in women's 10-metre air pistol, Giuseppe Di Salvatore of Surrey, B.C., in men's trap, the equestrian squad in team eventing, team dressage and team jumping, and one men's and one women's quota position in modern pentathlon.

"We've had some terrific performances at these Games and we're proud of all the Canadian athletes who competed here," said Canada's chef de mission Tricia Smith. "We had medals in a wide variety of sports and certainly felt we created an environment for success at these Games that we want to duplicate in Beijing."

The women's water polo team fell just short of an Olympic berth, losing 6-4 to the U.S. in the gold-medal game.

The swim team led the way with 18 medals - one gold, five silver and 12 bronze - five more than in 2003.

Pierre Lafontaine, national coach and Swimming Canada's CEO, brought a `B' team to Rio to help expand the talent pool and the young squad exceeded his prediction of 12 medals.

"For a young group of kids, it was a very good meet," said Lafontaine. "To me, the greatest part was these kids want to win, they want to race, they're not happy with fourth, they're not happy with third and they're sure not happy with second, which I'm not sure if we had seen that in a long time."

In one of the highlights at the pool, Annamay Pierse of Edmonton rebounded from food poisoning to set Canadian records in the 100 and 200-metre breaststroke.

The track and field team captured 12 medals - six gold, four silver, two bronze - topping the 10 won in 2003, and providing several highlights at these Games.

Adam Kunkel of Paisley, Ont., shattered his Canadian record and defeated Olympic gold medallist Felix Sanchez en route to gold in the 400-metre hurdles.

"Kunkel's run was magnificent," said Gardiner. "Everybody was talking about Felix Sanchez tripping off of Hurdle 10, but Adam faltered before that (off the eighth hurdle) and no-one noticed that he lost time too."

Jessica Zelinka of London, Ont., suffered a serious foot injury midway through the 800 metres, the final event of the heptathlon, but gritted her teeth to finish and win the gold. The injury - a ruptured plantar fascia, which runs along the bottom of the foot - will keep her out of next month's world championships.

The men's field hockey team erased seven years of disappointment, beating Argentina in penalty strokes in a thrilling gold-medal match. The team is headed to the Olympics for the first time since 2000 in Sydney.

"We've had seven terrible years," an emotional team captain Rob Short said after the win. "This is the most important win of my career."

Rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Orlando of Toronto was Canada's most decorated athlete, with three gold medals, while Mike Beres of Ottawa won two gold and a silver in badminton.

Orlando hoped to win five golds in Rio, but a mishap in the ribbon - the ribbon detached from the wand leaving her with a score of zero points - cost her probable gold in that event, plus a spot in the all-around final. She was honoured for her performance and her grace under pressure by carrying Canada's flag in the closing ceremonies.

Canada's equestrian team wrapped up the competition, collecting gold and bronze Sunday on the final day of the Games.

Jill Henselwood of Oxford Mills, Ont., rode Special Ed to gold in show jumping, while Eric Lamaze of Schomberg, Ont., took the bronze aboard Hickstead. Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa took the silver, while Ian Millar of Perth, Ont., making his eighth Pan Am appearance, finished fourth on In Style.

These Games weren't without their disappointments. The women's soccer team, which came to Rio to fine-tune two months before September's World Cup in China, left with more questions than answers after settling for bronze.

The team was thrashed 7-0 by Brazil in the preliminary round, then dispatched 2-1 by an under-20 U.S., team in the semifinals, before salvaging a positive result  with a 2-1 win over Mexico in the bronze-medal game.

"It's good to finish off on a good note, but it was never great," Canadian coach Even Pellerud said of the tournament. "This is not the World Cup level, we need to get better."

At the track, 400-metre star Tyler Christopher had to settle for silver after what he believed was a false start cost him potential gold. The Edmonton sprinter didn't hear the gun and jogged out of his blocks, but when the race wasn't called back he had to play catchup.

An enraged Christopher booted a lane marker after the race, and pushed through a pair of officials, apologizing later for his behaviour.

Canadian athletes got a taste of the overzealous Brazilian crowds early in the Games when 14-year-old gymnast Peng-Peng Lee of Richmond Hill, Ont., was jeered during the balance beam.

Lee, who stands all of four feet six and 70 pounds, succumbed to the hostile crowd, falling off the beam three times during her routine to finish eighth out of eight in the final.

"I've never ever experienced this as a gymnast and I find it a lot like a hockey game," Lee said afterwards.

The same day, veteran shooter Susan Nattrass was booed en route to her gold medal in trap shooting.

"It was a difficult final because of all the yelling by the Brazilian fans," said the Edmonton native. "It's not part of our sport to cheer and especially to cheer when the shooters miss the target."

Between the crowds, and concerns over the food, transportation, safety and scheduling, the Pan Ams were the perfect warmup for next year's Olympics, said Gardiner.

"Certainly Rio provided us with all kinds of ambiguity, transportation concerns, challenges about schedule changes," said Gardiner. "And we don't think we'll see this in Beijing, but this has been a really, really good Games for preparing us."