Santiago de Chile, October 19 (EFE).- The meeting point with Santiago de Chile has arrived. Thirty-nine sports, 59 disciplines, 41 countries and nearly seven thousand athletes will officially begin writing their history this Friday during the nineteenth edition of the Pan American Games.
With the opening ceremony and the lighting of the cauldron of the National Stadium which will open 17 days of competition in 39 sports, among which break, skateboarding and climbing make their debut in these fairs, Santiago 2023 will show that its opportunity history of hosting the Games, after two failed attempts in 1975 and 1987, will not be indifferent to him.
The opening show, which will benefit from a historic television broadcast in front of 200 million viewers, promises to show the world a united and diverse country with a staging of more than 5,000 artists involved to leave a message on its identity and its future as a voiceless country. words.
The lighting of the flame will end Chile’s struggle to host the Pan American Games after years of preparation and hard work and will only showcase the skills of the athletes who will participate in the event.
Since October 2, three torches have set off simultaneously from three different ends of Chile (Arica in the north, Punta Arenas in the south and Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean) to make a long journey to Santiago.
The games actually began last Wednesday, with the baseball match between Mexico and Chile at the Bicentennial Park in Cerrillos; and this Thursday the boxing began with some preliminary fights.
But after this Friday, the competitions will begin to fall in which the eyes of the world will be turned towards the Chilean capital and this will allow us to see that the wait for the start of the biggest celebration of American sport is finally over.
At Santiago 2023, many Olympic athletes can be seen in action, such as Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade, Canadian swimmer Maggie Mac Neil, Dominican athlete Marileidy Paulino, Colombian cyclist Mariana Pajón, Ecuadorian cyclist Richard Carapaz, Cuban boxer Julio César La Cruz or the Venezuelan fencer Rubén Limardo, among other world personalities, to make these games an unforgettable event.
The Santiago 2023 Pan American Games will also deliver the highest number of Olympic places in the history of this sporting competition, with 33 qualifying disciplines for Paris 2024, eight more than in the previous edition held in Lima 2019, according to Neven Ilic , president. from Panam Sports.
Of all the competitions, 21 will provide direct access to the next Olympic Games, while in the other 12 athletes will have the opportunity to obtain qualifying scores or add points for the Olympic ranking.
Among the sports quotas for Paris 2024, boxing stands out, because these Pan American Games will be the first major Olympic qualifiers for the continent.
Other direct passports will concern competitions in handball, breaking, diving, equestrian dressage, equestrian eventing, show jumping, sport climbing, artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics.
Of this group, rhythmic gymnastics and equestrian show jumping are in this event as the last available for these athletes to be in the French capital next year. The United States show jumping team is a standout in equestrian, with a silver medal at Tokyo 2020 yet to qualify.
Most of the Olympic sports that are part of the program are joined this time by three new ones at the Pan American Games: station wagon – which will also make its debut at Paris 2024 -, skateboarding and climbing, in the Olympic cycle since Tokyo 2020. .
And as Neven Ilic, President of Panam Sports, said, Santiago 2023 is ready and all we have to say is: let the party begin!
(c) EFE Agency
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