2015 Pan American Games

XVII Pan American Games
The official logo of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.
Host city	Toronto, Canada
Motto	United we play
Nations participating	41
Athletes participating	8000(estimated)[1]
Events	363 in 36 sports
Opening ceremony	July 10
Closing ceremony	July 26
Officially opened by	TBD
Athlete's Oath	TBD
Judge's Oath	TBD
Pan American Torch	TBD
Stadium	Rogers Centre

The 2015 Pan American Games, officially the XVII Pan American Games or the 17th Pan American Games, is a major international multi-sport event that is scheduled to be held from July 10–26, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Barrie, Caledon, Hamilton, Markham, Minden, Mississauga, Oshawa, Pickering, St. Catharines and Welland. Approximately 8,000 athletes from 41 nations are expected to participate in 37 sports.^[2] Both the Pan American and Parapan American Games are being organized by the Toronto 2015 Organizing Committee (TO2015). The 2015 Pan American Games will become the third Pan American Games hosted by Canada and the first by the province of Ontario. Previously, Canada hosted the 1967 Pan American Games and the 1999 Pan American Games both in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The 2015 Parapan American Games will be held 10 days after the Pan American Games.

The 2015 Pan American Games will become the first completely ecologically friendly games, because it will be fully carbon neutral. The Games will also be the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in Canada.^[3][4]

Organization

Host city election

Toronto was selected by the Canadian Olympic Committee as the official bid city from Canada for the 2015 Pan American Games.

Toronto

Location of Toronto in Canada

The Canadian Olympic Committee chose Toronto and the surrounding region as the Canadian candidate. No other Canadian city showed interest in staging the games, therefore Toronto was selected without a vote. Toronto's interest in bidding came after failing to land the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics, which were held in Atlanta and Beijing respectively.

The Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) made an evaluation visit to Toronto between August 30 and 31, 2009. PASO created the Evaluation Commission, as the International Olympic Committee had done prior to the bidding for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Host cities would often fly members of PASO to their city. The lack of oversight and transparency often led to allegations of money for votes. Afterward, changes brought forth by PASO (the same as the IOC) bidding rules were tightened, and more focused on technical aspects of candidate cities. The team analyzed the candidate city features and provided its feedback back to voting members of PASO. The evaluation committee was headed by Julio Maglione, a member of the IOC representing Uruguay and the head of Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), the international swimming federation.

Day one of the visit began on Sunday, August 30, and saw PASO officials visit the future home of the new Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, including an aquatics centre, at the University of Toronto Scarborough; the Metro Toronto Convention Centre – proposed media and broadcast centre, and event host; York University’s Rexall Centre and the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. Day two on August 31st had the Evaluation Officials visiting McMaster University’s David Braley Centre in Hamilton, view the Niagara-region water courses by helicopter, and continue the day with visits to Roy Thomson Hall, BMO Field, Direct Energy Centre, Ricoh Coliseum, the Air Canada Centre and finally to the Rogers Centre, where the opening and closing ceremonies and baseball events would take place. After the visit Maglione said, "Toronto has all the conditions to play host to the Pan American Games" ^[5]

2015 Pan American Games bidding results
City	NOC	Round 1
Toronto	Canada	33
Lima	Peru	11
Bogota	Colombia	7

Toronto won the bidding process to host the Pan American Games by a vote of the Pan American Sports Organization on November 6, 2009, at the PASO Session held in Guadalajara, Mexico. The result was announced by PASO President Mario Vázquez Raña.^[6] Toronto faced two other finalists shortlisted Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Colombia. Toronto earned 33 votes while contesting candidate cities Lima and Bogotá received 11 and 7 votes, respectively.^[7]

Infrastructure and budget

The Toronto 2015 Organizing Committee (TO2015) along with all three levels of government will spend about $1.4 billion Canadian dollars in upgrading and building new venues in the region.^[8] The provincial government (Ontario) and the Canadian federal government would provide 35% each of the funding, with the municipalities covering the remaining 30% of the cost. Also $1 billion Canadian dollars will be spent on building an athletes village in the West Don Lands area of Toronto. Later in 2011 Toronto's contribution to the games almost doubled from $49.5 million to $96.5 million for several reasons: the athletics stadium was moved to York University from Hamilton, the soil was to be remediated at the University of Toronto Scarborough where the proposed aquatics centre is supposed to be built, and more money was needed for the proposed bmx track and the increase in inflation.^[9]

Many transit improvements in Toronto will be made in time for these games. These include the Air Rail Link from Pearson International Airport to Union Station,^[10] and the extension of the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the Toronto subway into Vaughan with a stop at York University, site of three sports: athletics, rugby sevens and tennis.^[11]

Logo

The original bid logo for the games

Toronto's bid logo was launched on October 2, 2008, with then Toronto mayor David Miller and then head of the organizing committee David Peterson unveiling the logo to the public. The bid logo looks like an abstract maple leaf with three sections, each section made up of two strokes in the shape of a "v" with a spot in the centre. The colours are green, red and blue. This was the official logo of the games until 2010 when the new logo was launched.^[12]

On September 29, 2010 the official logo of the games was unveiled at a street party at Maple Leaf Square.^[13] According to Ian Troop, the chief executive officer of Toronto 2015 organizing committee, the logo is designed on the basis of the different art styles seen throughout the countries of PASO. The logo symbolizes the different style of pre-Columbian aboriginal art and Mesoamerican traditions from 1600 BC.

The colours in the logo are green blue and orange. The green and blue represent the nature and environment of the Americas continent, where forests and clear lakes are plentiful. The logo has three distinct shapes each with one of the three colours. The bottom two represent a “T and O” which represents the city in which the games will be held, Toronto. The year 2015 is written inside the letters.^[14]

Venues

Rogers Centre: Ceremonies venue.

Toronto will become one of the most populous cities to ever hold the Pan American Games. In July, the month when the Games will be held, Toronto has an average temperature of 21 °C (70 °F). Toronto’s summer temperatures around July are warm, and the city averages less than five days with the temperature going above 30 °C (86 °F).AAs well in July Toronto averages about 67mm of precipitation. Moreover, Toronto's elevation is at 112 m (367 ft) above sea level, which provides optimal and ideal conditions for athletes.^[15]

The venues were scheduled to be divided into three zones - Central Games Zone (Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Richmond Hill and Markham), West Games Zone (Hamilton) and East Games Zone (Oshawa and Pickering). In addition there were venues that were to be located outside the zones in St. Catharines, Caledon, Minden and Welland.^[16]

In January 2012, the organizing committee announced that sixty percent of the originally proposed venues would be dropped, in favour of a clustering system seen at other multi-sport events such as the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Great Britain. The final venue plan has yet to be released.^[17]

The opening and closing ceremonies will be held at Rogers Centre. Some of the competition venues in the Toronto area included the Air Canada Centre, BMO Field, the Pan American Field Hockey Centre, the Direct Energy Centre and Roy Thomson Hall. Competition venues in the suburbs included the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Markham Pan Am Centre in Markham and General Motors Centre in Oshawa.

Sports

This is the list of the proposed sports by the Organizing Committee, it has not been finalized. 36 sports are proposed to be staged, with Basque Pelota being dropped from the last games and and golf (after being added to the Olympic program for 2016 being added. The Toronto Organizing Committee has also proposed adding women's baseball and men´s softball to the program subject to PASO's approval.^[18]

Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events proposed to be contested in each sport.

The Games

Participating teams

All 41 nations of PASO are expected to compete. This represents a drop of one from the 2011 Pan American Games, as the Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee was dissolved in 2011.^[19]

Calendar

This is the proposed calendar for the 2015 Pan American Games. Subject to change.

OC

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

1

Event finals

EG

Exhibition gala

CC

Closing ceremony

July		9th Thu	10th Fri	11th Sat	12th Sun	13th Mon	14th Tue	15th Wed	16th Thu	17th Fri	18th Sat	19th Sun	20th Mon	21st Tue	22nd Wed	23rd Thu	24th Fri	25th Sat	26th Sun	Events
Ceremonies			OC																CC
Archery														●	●					4
Athletics																				47
Badminton															●	●	●			5
Baseball							●	●	●	●	●	●	1							1
Basketball									●	●	●	●	1	●	●	●	●	1		2
Beach volleyball						●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1							2
Boxing									●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●				13
Bowling													●	●	2	●	●	2		4
Canoeing																				16
Cycling					2	2						2			●					18
Diving											2	2	2	2						8
Equestrian				●	1	●	1				●	●	2			●	1	●	1	6
Fencing																				12
Field hockey								●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●		1	1		2
Football		●		●	●	●		●		●	●		●	●		●	2			2
Futsal														●	●	●	●	●	1	1
Gymnastics															●					24
Golf																				4
Handball										●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1	2
Judo																				14
Karate																				10
Modern pentathlon											1	1								2
Racquetball													●	●	●	●	●	●	6	6
Roller skating													●	●	6	●	●	2		8
Rowing				●	●	●														14
Rugby sevens															●	1	●	1		2
Sailing						●	●	●	●	●	●									9
Softball													●	●	●	●	●	1		1
Shooting				1	1	1	●	1	1	1										15
Squash												●	●	●	●	●	●	●	6	6
Swimming				●																34
Synchronized swimming															●	●	1	1		2
Table tennis				●	●	●	●	●	2	2										4
Taekwondo				2	2	2	2													4
Tennis						●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	5				5
Triathlon				2																2
Volleyball				●	●	●		●	1		●	●	●		●	1				2
Water polo				●	●	●	●		1		●	●	●	●		1				2
Water skiing																●	●	1	1	9
Weightlifting					3	3	3	3	3											15
Wrestling																				18
Total Events																				359
Cumulative total																			359
July		9th Thu	10th Fri	11th Sat	12th Sun	13th Mon	14th Tue	15th Wed	16th Thu	17th Fri	18th Sat	19th Sun	20th Mon	21st Tue	22nd Wed	23rd Thu	24th Fri	25th Sat	26th Sun	Events

References

External links

• Official Website