Jogos Pan Americanos

Rio is currently playing host to the fifteenth annual Pan American Games. The Games, which are held every four years during the year preceding the summer Olympics, feature athletes representing countries in North, Central, and South America. Everyone here is abuzz with talk of the various events, though if you are reading this from the US you probably have no idea that they are even going on, despite the fact that the US is leading the Games with 62 gold medals (Cuba is second with 31, and Brazil a close third with 29). I for one had never heard of them until I moved down here, though they have been held in the US twice: in Chicago in 1959 and in Indianapolis in 1987. Rio has been hyping the Games since last year, selling mascot-emblazoned merchandise as well as posting banners in airports and tourist-heavy locations. One of the major complaints by Brazilians is that the games are not getting coverage in the US (rumor has it they are hoping to parlay hosting these Games as well as the 2014 World Cup into a strong bid for a future Olympics, thus any publicity they can get is to their advantage).

I was in Rio with Christina last week and the "Pan," as they call it here, has taken over the city. There are venues set up stretching from beach volleyball courts on Copacabana to a huge new soccer stadium in Recreio (where the Rio marathon started) named after Zico, a legendary midfielder who played for Brazil in the '78, '82, and '86 World Cups, and coached the Japanese team in the most recent Cup in 2006. Right outside our hotel, on Ipanema, there was a huge movie screen on the beach that showed a different film each night (our second night there it was An Inconvenient Truth and we could hear Al Gore's voice as we sat in our room after dinner). I also noticed that the demographics of the people staying in our regular Rio hotel were vastly different this trip. Usually it is filled with Brazilians and Americas, last week, however, Spanish seemed to be the dominant language of guests, spectators from all over South America there to cheer for their countries, though we did see some Americans and Canadians as well.

We didn't have tickets to any of the events, but one event that could be seen for free was the rowing, due to the fact that there were various locations around the lake - besides the one with bleachers for which you had to pay - from which the boats could be seen. We stood for a while, catching the end of one race followed by some medal ceremonies and kayakers and canoers warming up. As we were getting out of our car at the lake, I looked over and saw a man I thought I recognized. Then, I realized that he was Diogo Silva, the first gold medal winner of the Games for Brazil (in taekwodo). We rushed over and asked if we could take a photo with him, and he smiled a big smile and put his arm around Christina.