We're in the midst of the Pan Am Games. I'm actually impressed with the amount of coverage ESPN has had (which is significantly more than they had four years ago in Toronto), even if that coverage, by and large, hasn't been very good. (Although, I will give them a bit of a break in one respect, since they're also providing coverage for the Caribbean and using the same feed.)
I could go on and on about ESPN's hits and misses (for one thing, they really need a host), but instead I want to talk about something that I've noticed much more this year than I did while attending the Pan Am Games in 2015. Some of the competition is really good. A lot of it's not. And that bad competition is really bad, which, unfortunately, is painfully obvious on TV.
None of this is the Pan Am Games' fault. It's a regional competition. It's not going to be as good as the Olympics and everyone knows that. While the US, Canada, Brazil and Argentina are among the 41 countries participating, so are small Central American and Caribbean nations. Athletes from those countries have little to no chance at qualifying for the Olympics and they know it, so the Pan Am Games are a huge deal for them. Which is one of the most wonderful and valuable things about them.
However, not every country's thoughts about the Pan Am Games are the same. The United States sends mostly B and C-level teams in many sports...and still dominates the medal table. It wasn't always that way. During the swimming this afternoon, Rowdy Gaines was talking about his Pan Am Games experiences in 1979 and 1983.
That's obviously not the case anymore, as the Pan Am Games have been trumped in importance by the World Championships and other major international competitions that offer Olympic qualifying opportunities in the pre-Olympic year. They already have busy schedules and trying to squeeze in a trip to the Pan Am Games doesn't always work out (the next Pan Am Games, for example, are in late October, which is just nine months before the Paris Olympics after a lot of them will have shut their seasons down). So, it's nice that the Pan Am Games give others the opportunity to wear a USA jersey at an international multi-sport event.
The Pan Am Games are THE pinnacle for athletes in sports like bowling and squash and water skiing, which aren't part of the Olympics. In those sports, you know the American A team will always be there. And the A team will also be there in sports where Olympic qualification is at stake.
But Olympic qualification is only at stake in a handful of sports, which I think is a problem. The winners of the handball and field hockey tournaments go to Tokyo. The winners of the basketball and volleyball tournaments don't. So, naturally, the handball and field hockey tournaments are first-rate, while the volleyball and basketball tournaments are an afterthought. (In fact, the World Olympic Women's Volleyball Qualification Tournaments were held last weekend.) In some sports, the U.S. didn't even bother sending a team.
It's not practical to attach Olympic qualifying to every sport. The international federations all decide on their own qualification systems, and the level of competition at the Pan Am Games isn't necessarily high enough in a lot of sports to warrant giving the winner an Olympic berth. But there has to be some way to meet in the middle. Because even in the sports where athletes can qualify for the Olympics, the best aren't necessarily coming because they either already have or can another way (or their schedule doesn't allow it).
Take the swimmers. This is their last three weeks: July 12-28, World Championships in South Korea; August 1-4, US Nationals in Palo Alto; August 6-12, Pan Am Games in Peru. Can you blame the top names for not wanting to go to Pan Ams when nothing is at stake?
Those World Championships in Korea also included diving and water polo. But, unlike swimming, diving and water polo both offer Olympic qualifying opportunities at the Pan Am Games. The U.S. women's water polo team has already qualified, but the men haven't. Winning Pan Ams is a great opportunity to do that, but that's a lot to ask from the team that was just in Korea at Worlds. (Yes, the competition isn't nearly as strong at the Pan Am Games, but the point remains. Why is it an A-level tournament in water polo, but not other team sports?)
Personally, I'd like to see it be completely one way or completely the other. Either the Pan Am Games are an Olympic qualifier in every team sport or they aren't in any. This way we won't get stuck with this weird current situation where the Pan Am Games really matter in some sports and not at all in others. The federations can still choose whether or not to send their full "varsity" National Teams, but if something's at stake in all of the team sports tournaments, just imagine how much better they'll be.
While it wouldn't work across the board (it wouldn't work in swimming or track & field, for example), Olympic qualification should be attached to a Pan Am Games gold medal in as many sports as possible. But it shouldn't have an asterisk on it. In diving, for example, if the gold medalist was already qualified, no one got the Pan Am Olympic berth. Why not? Give it to the highest finisher who hasn't qualified yet.
Winning a Pan Am Games gold medal should mean something, and to a lot of athletes it does. But the quality of competition at the Pan Am Games is extremely watered-down in a number of sports, especially those where nothing's on the line.
Countries like the United States and Canada are never going to care about the Pan Am Games as much as the Olympics. That's never going to change. But there has to be something that can be done to bring value to Pan Ams, if only for the sake of the competition. Because the rest of the countries in the Americas deserve it. Just don't ask me what that solution is.
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