Athletes Cheer Toronto’s Pan Am Win

There was excitement and anticipation among Canadian athletes and sports officials following Friday’s announcement that Toronto had been awarded the 2015 Pan Am Games.

The excitement was over a sports infrastructure being built in the Toronto area that could put the country’s summer athletes on an even footing with their winter colleagues.

The anticipation was over the possibility hosting the Games could be a stepping stone toward Toronto being awarded a Summer Olympics.

“I feel summer athletes are kind of in the shadows many times when we are being compared to the winter sports,” rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Orlando said in a telephone interview from Guadalajara, Mexico, where the announcement was made. “For summer athletes, we get criticized so much.

“These Games are going to set up the infrastructure we need to develop that potential in our athletes. I believe it is going to change the face of armature sport in this country.”

Swimmer Annamay Pierse, who has never competed in a major international meet in Canada, may now get over the envy she felt toward Canadian winter athletes preparing for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

“I’ve been watching and waiting for Vancouver 2010 and seeing how excited the athletes are over getting to compete at home,” said the world-record holder, who won three medals in the pool at the 2007 Pan Ams in Rio de Janeiro. “It just makes me so jealous.

“Now there is a chance. It’s so cool.”

Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep was thrilled Toronto won the bid.

“That’s awesome,” she shouted when told the news. “This is going to be a win-win, for everyone. Whether it be the athletes or the people selling things.

“It’s going to bring more people into Canada. It’s going to help make the community stronger.”

Lopes-Schliep has never competed at a Pan Am Games so would relish the chance at hurdling before a Canadian crowd.

“I’m hoping to run,” she said. “If I’m not running I want to be taking part in it.

“It’s so exciting.”

The man who has helped put the national swim team back on course called Toronto’s win “a great victory for Canadian sports.”

“We’re trying to rebuild the Canadian sports system,” said Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada’s chief executive officer and national team coach. “It’s just another building block to the rightful place where we should belong in the world sports system.”

Michael Chambers, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said summer sport development was a cornerstone of the Toronto bid.

“We went after these Games not to get a Games, but to get a legacy,” he said from Mexico. “We especially went after these Games so there would be a legacy for summer sport athletes in Canada, in the Toronto area.”

Toronto will also host the 2015 Pan Am Paralympic Games.

“Hosting the 2015 Games will raise awareness of summer para-sport and we hope this will inspire even more Canadians with a disability to become involved,” Henry Storgaard, chief executive officer of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, said in a release.

The Pan American Sports Organization selected Toronto on the first ballot during its general assembly. Toronto won 33 votes, with Lima, Peru, receiving 11 and Bogota, Colombia, seven.

Lopes-Schliep said the facilities planned for the Games could be used by high-calibre athletes, kids wanting to get involved in sports, and people looking for a healthy lifestyle.

“It’s going to bring the community closer and stronger,” she said from Nebraska, where she is currently training. “We are going to get more facilities, which is going to help the grassroots, the kids.

“The facilities are going to be a big help with the community. It’s going to turn things around for the better. It’s going to make the community bigger, better, stronger.”

Plans for the Games call for more than 50 venues in the region from Niagara Falls to Miden and Oshawa, including six new facilities to be built in Toronto, Markham and Hamilton.

Among the facilities would be the multi-sport Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, a new aquatics centre plus a pair of 50-metre training pools, a stadium with seating for 15,000, and a cycling velodrome.

The Games have a $1.4 billion budget for the sporting event itself and $1 billion for an athletes’ village, which is expected to be turned into a mixed-income neighbourhood serviced by transit.

The federal and provincial governments are each on the hook for 35 per cent of the $1.4 billion, or some $500 million each. Municipalities and private investors will pay the remaining $428.5 million.

The addition of three new swimming pools will allow Toronto to finally host an internationally sanctioned swim event. But Lafontaine said not only elite athletes will benefit.

“People forget 50-metre pools just don’t help world-class athletes,” he said. “They help everybody.

“It allows a community to have much more flexibility in their programs. You can have swimming lessons on one side, a program for seniors on the other side and still run a swim team or diving program.”

A successful Pan Am Games will also boost Toronto’s chance’s of hosting a Summer Olympics.

“It’s a stepping stone,” said Lopes-Schliep. “If you get this and prove yourself worthy . . . that would make it look good for getting a bid for future Olympics or even world championships.”

Tennis Canada said bringing the Pan Ams to Toronto will breed future stars.

“This tremendous competition will positively impact our athletes and coaches for generations, including the future stars of tennis,” said Tony Eames, chair of Tennis Canada’s board of directors.

Canada hosted the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg. The next Pan Am Games is scheduled to take place in Guadalajara in October 2011.

Some of the Pan Am competitions serve as Olympic qualifying events.

Pierce, who won a silver medal at this year’s swim world championships in Rome, said having the Pan Ams in Toronto could help Canadian athletes get on the podium at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“The (2007) Pan Ams was my breakout year,” she said. “The next year I had Olympics and did even better. I did better because I had that experience from the Pan Ams Games and being on that international scene.”