A look at a few of the top athletes to watch in this year’s Pan American Games, which open Friday and run through Aug. 17 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic:
Chris Witty, U.S. cycling
The Olympic speedskating champion is back on the cycling track to see if she can be the second U.S. athlete (after boxer-bobsledder Eddie Eagan in 1920 and 1932) to win medals in the Summer and Winter Games. She is only the ninth U.S. athlete to compete in both. Witty is racing the Pan Am Games match sprint, in which she placed fifth at the 2000 Olympics.
Ana Guevara, Mexico, track
Guevara is the first woman to become a national sports hero in Mexico. Winner of 20 straight races at 400 meters, she will be heavily favored to become Mexico’s first track world champion of either gender later this month in Paris. Guevara is defending Pan Am champion in the event.
Gary Hall, U.S., swimming
The freewheeling Hall did not make the U.S. team for last week’s world championships, so he has returned to the Pan Am Games, where he won a gold medal on the 4×100-meter freestyle relay in 1995. Hall, 28, has been training intermittently since sharing the 50 free gold with teammate Anthony Ervin at the 2000 Olympics.
Felix Sanchez, Dominican Republic, track
Sanchez was born and raised in New York but switched his allegiance to his parents’ homeland in 1999 when he could not crack the U.S. elite in the 400-meter hurdles. As a Dominican, Sanchez has become a world-beater, winner of the 2001 world title and 23 consecutive hurdles races. He has said the Pan Am title would mean more than another world title.
Rulon Gardner, U.S., wrestling
This is the first major international competition for the reigning Olympic champion in Greco-Roman heavyweight since he nearly died after a snowmobile accident in 2002. Gardner lost one toe to frostbite but has regained most of his wrestling skills after nearly a year layoff. He will have strong competition from Cuba’s Mijian Lopez, who has beaten Gardner twice since February.
Brazil men’s volleyball
The reigning world champs are considered the class of the sport, for style and results. Led by Mauricio Lima, voted best setter in the worlds, the Brazilians ended Italy’s run of three straight wins in the quadrennial event. The International Volleyball Federation’s Web site of the Pan Am Games said: “Brazil, light of touch and a joy to see on the court, are so far ahead of the pack that the main debate rests not on whether they will take home the gold, but who might take the minor medals.”
At a glance
What: Pan American Games
Where: Dominican Republic
When: Friday through Aug. 17
Who: A Pan Am record 5,300 athletes are representing 42 nations from the Western Hemisphere.
History: Held every four years in the year preceding Summer Olympic Games. The first event was in 1951 in Buenos Aires.
