What to know for the Pan Am Games

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening in sports by subscribing here.

Though the opening ceremony is still a couple of days away, competition at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile began this morning with a men’s baseball game between the host country and Mexico. It did not go well for the Chileans, who were routed 16-0.

Canadians start competing Thursday, when boxing gets underway alongside more baseball. (Canada does not have a team in the latter, though it does have one in women’s softball). The opening ceremony takes place Friday night.

The Games run through Nov. 5, with more than 6,800 athletes (including 473 Canadians) from 41 countries and territories in the Americas and the Caribbean competing in 39 different sports.

With the 2024 Summer Olympics just nine months away, you can think of these Pan Am Games as a regional dress rehearsal for Paris. For some athletes, the stakes will be higher, as more than 100 Olympic spots are up for grabs across 21 sports. In some of those (including boxing, diving and gymnastics), athletes can secure direct Olympic berths for themselves or their country. In others (including swimming and track and field), they can earn rankings points and/or meet qualification standards that could help send them to Paris.

Some other things to know about these Pan Am Games:

Canadians are going to win a lot of medals.

Canada ranks third all-time in both gold and total medals at the Pan Am Games, which have been held every four years since 1951. As you’d expect, the United States is the dominant country, with more than twice the gold and overall medals of any other nation. Cuba is second in both categories.

Canada’s biggest haul came when it hosted the 2015 Games in Toronto, where it captured 219 total medals and 78 gold (both national records) to finish second in the standings. In 2019 in Peru, Canada’s output fell to 152 medals and 35 gold, dropping it to fourth place.

Some of Canada’s best Olympic athletes are competing, but others are missing.

Track icon Andre De Grasse and swimming phenom Summer McIntosh are among the high-profile athletes skipping the Games, leaving Canada without its biggest star in the two most popular sports. But the Canadian team still features 15 athletes who have won Olympic medals — including swimmer Maggie Mac Neil and weightlifter Maude Charron, who both captured gold in Tokyo in 2021.

WATCH | Paris 2024 will be the culmination of a dream for Canada’s Maude Charron:

Canada’s swimming team also features Sydney Pickrem, a three-time world-championship solo medallist, and Mary-Sophie Harvey, who told CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux that she attempted suicide before the 2019 Pan Am Games in Peru, where she won four medals.

The Canadian track and field squad is headlined by Ethan Katzberg, the 21-year-old hammer thrower who won a surprise gold medal at this summer’s world championships; Sarah Mitton, won took silver in the women’s shot put at worlds; and veteran race walker Evan Dunfee, the 2021 Olympic bronze medallist who had a pair of fourth-place finishes at worlds.

WATCH | Canada’s Humana-Paredes excited to compete in parents’ home nation:

Humana-Paredes excited to compete at Pan Am Games in parents’ home country of Chile

Featured VideoCanadian beach volleyball player Melissa Humana-Paredes discusses her Chilean heritage and her parents sacrifices amidst the country’s darkest times.

Other Canadian standouts competing in Santiago include boxer Tammara Thibeault, a recent world champ in the women’s middleweight division; the fifth-ranked women’s beach volleyball duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson; and divers Pamela Ware and Caeli McKay, who each won a solo bronze at this year’s world championships.

We’ll have more on some of the top Canadians to watch in tomorrow’s newsletter. Read more about the Canadian team here. 

You might catch a rising star.

Some now-famous athletes have used the Pan Am Games as a springboard to stardom. Think of Andre De Grasse’s breakthrough performance in 2015 in Toronto, where the 20-year-old won gold in the 100m and 200m. That led to his surprising 100m bronze at the world championships in Beijing the following month — the first of De Grasse’s many major medal wins.

Toronto was also a launching pad for Jamal Murray, just an 18-year-old incoming college freshman when he scored 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to help Canada beat the U.S. for a spot in the men’s basketball final. Murray is now a bona fide NBA star who helped Denver to the championship last spring.

American track and field legend Carl Lewis was only 17 when he won long-jump bronze at the 1979 Games in Puerto Rico, paving the way to nine Olympic gold medals during the ’80s and ’90s. And Michael Jordan’s international debut happened at the 1983 Games in Venezuela, where the University of North Carolina star was the top scorer for the gold-winning U.S. team.

How to watch:

CBC Sports’ live streaming coverage of the Pan Am Games begins Friday, with a full day of competition starting at 8:20 a.m. ET and the opening ceremony at 7:30 p.m. ET. 

Starting Saturday, live sports will be streamed on multiple channels each day on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Those platforms will also carry a live show weekdays starting at 6 p.m. ET, hosted by Anastasia Bucsis and featuring a mix of live events and highlights with a focus on Canadian athletes. The CBC TV network will have additional coverage on Saturday and Sunday afternoons throughout the Games, hosted by Scott Russell and Andi Petrillo.

See the full streaming and broadcast schedules here.