Pan American Games Pictures #2 Of 2 (Village & Racing)

Pan American Games Pictures #2 Of 2 (Village & Racing): This post completes the posting of my pictures from the Pan American Games. I'm hoping that the pictures (and videos that I will put up later) will do the games justice in terms of communicating my full and complete experience. To be honest with you, I don't think this is possible though.

You can find the photo albums using the follwing links: click here for racing photos and click here for the athete's/ Pan American Games village photos (83 pics).




2007-07 Pan American Games Village (83 photos)


2007-07 Brazil Pan American Games Racing (188 photos)

A view from Brian & my room's balcony

Many of the Pan American Games village residents came in and left from this well organized and secure bus bay, complete with x-ray machines and metal detectors as well as armed guards and lots of helpful volunteers

The sign for the bus that took us to the velodrome/ skating track- bay #12

The Canadian operations centre included offices, medical rooms, athlete's lounge, coach & official's lounge

Tight security at the Pan American Village

Some of the yummy food from the cafeteria

Signatures in the laundry service room

A big screen complete with sound was set up outside in the village- crowds would gather to watch the events

Outside one of the Canadian buildings- one of the really nice things about the Pan American Games is that virtually all the athletes from the delegations wore their uniforms at all times

The pool- picture from my balcony- the water was freezing, so I didn't swim at all

Early morning in Rio de Janeiro- 6-something AM

The cafeteria- fit for 2500 starving athletes

Inside the athletes village- the international area

Signatures on a wall inside the cafeteria

The buildings in the Pan American Village were colour coded- very nice to look at and brand new!

20km distance- Colombia (Jorge Luis Cifuentes), Ecuador (Jorge Bolanos), and Cuba (Tony Garcia)

I made a reference yesterday to part of my experience being terrible; let me explain. Simply said, I was expecting better performances from myself, and I took it quite hard not being able to be at the top of my game. I give no excuses, instead I take motivation, lessons, and experience from the racing

Women's 500-meter final- Jennifer Caicedo (Colombia) leads eventual winner Brittany Bowe (USA)

At the start line for one of the semi-final women's 500-meter races

Men's 1000-meter heat

El Salvador's Diana Platero leads while USA's Jessica Smith is on the outside (left)

A shot of the track- I have to say that I was not impressed with the surface that was selected for the games. It was basically 4 foot x 4 foot untreated/ unfinished wood- it offered no grip or roll. Other than the track, the facility was very nice

The track...

One of the women's distance race

Mexico'a Ana Gabriela Celedon leads the way during one of the women's distance race while USA's Jessica Smith checks her skates

Chile's Jose Guzman on his way down, and with his fall, medal hopes are dashed

Faces of focus- Martine Charbonneau (Canada) and Joan Mariana Estrada (Guatemala)

Brazil's Thalita Arroyo leads Canada's Sarah Hopkins

USA's Joey Mantia in front of Argentina's Damian Fernandez and Colombia's Oswaldo Aramis Sael Pernett- Mantia was unbeatable during the weekend, winning all three of the sprint distances (300m, 500m, and 1000m) on his way to the sprint gold

Women's distance racing

RSO Speed Series #3 Photos, Pan American Games Pictures #1 Of 2 (Travel, People, Rio)

RSO Speed Series #3 Photos: There was an RSO Speed Series race today> The turnout was pretty good for this 3rd of 4 RSO Speed Series races. Despite a few falls and a few drop outs, the racing action was pretty intense. Top 3 in men were Jesse Pauley, Travis Shaw, and Morgan Williams. Top 3 in women were Sarah Hopkins, Morgane Echardour, and Dominique Lalonde. Results will be posted later here and on the RSO series website. Click here for the photos or if you like, check out the slide show below (there are 100+ photos).



2007-07-29 Toronto RSO #3
Pan American Games Pictures #1 Of 2 (Travel, People, Rio): I will post my Pan American Games pictures today and tomorrow. I divided the photos into 5 sets; travel, people, Rio, Village, and Racing. I'll link to the photo albums and embed some of the pictures that I like into SSW with a short description. The links to the photo albums are just below the slideshows. Enjoy!

Here are the direct links to the albums; 2007 Pan American Games Travel, 2007 Pan American Games People, and 2007 Pan American Games Rio. Two more albums will be featured tomorrow.

I'll work on putting the videos together this week.



2007-07 Brazil Pan Am Games Travel (17 photos)


2007-07 Brazil Pan Am Games People (87 photos)


2007-07 Pan American Games Rio (53 photos)

Most of the televisions in Brazil were set to Pan American Games events

Police escorts and lanes dedicated to the Pan American Games shuttles and buses were common in Rio de Janeiro

Mexico's Ana Gabriela Celedon, Veronica Elias Alvarado, and Jose Nathanael Munoz Ortega

Mexico's Alan Coronado stretches before one of his sprint races

USA's Jessica Smith helps Brittany Bowe with her radio

The team from Chile

Colombia's Jorge Luis Cifuentes being interviewed. He went on to win the gold medal in the men's distance

The team from Ecuador

Some of the team members from El Salvador including Diana Paltero (right)

The team from Guatemala

Joey Mantia and Jonathan Garcia- Mantia won the gold in the men's sprint and Garcia finished 4th in the distance

Joey Mantia's gold medal

Martine Charbonneau giving a Canadian pins to one of the security people- security was taken very seriously at the Pan American Games- more on this later

Coach Mike Murray giving last second instructions to Sarah Hopkins

Men's distance podium- 1st- Jorge Luis Cifuentes (Colombia), 2nd- Javier Oyalvis (Venezuela), and 3rd Jorge Bolanos (Ecuador)

Men's sprint podium- 1st- Joey Mantia (USA), 2nd- Damian Fernandez (Argentina), and 3rd- Juan Jardines (Venezuela)

Women's distance podium- 1st- Jessica Smith (USA), 2nd- Alexandra Vivas(Colombia), and 3rd- Sylvina Posada (Argentina)

Women's sprint podium- 1st- Brittany Bowe (USA), 2nd- Carolina Santibanez (Chile), and 3rd- Melisa Bonnet (Argentina)

Rafael Vitor (sprint- Brazil) with the webmaster of Rio Inline

Canadians galore- Martine Charbonneau, me, Brian Jalbert, Sarah Hopkins, and Kathleen Montgomery (arts)

Fun times at night; Ruben Martinez (Argentina), Tony Garcia (Cuba), Dayron Pineda (Cuba), and I

Brian Jalbert, Sarah Hopkins, me, and Martine Charbonneau

Tony Garcia (Cuba) skated very well- he was an animal out on the track, pushing the pace and cracking skaters in half!

This statue called Cristo Redentor- one of the new 7 wonds of the world- it's location offers a breath-taking view of Rio de Janeiro

Looking over at the Sugar Loaf mountain (right) from the Cristo

More Rio from the Cristo

This highway hugs the Atlantic ocean- it's very very nice to look at and be on

One of the slums of Rio

A view from the first level of the Sugar Loaf mountain- we had to go up by cable car

One of the cable cars that takes us up the Sugar Loaf