Logistical nightmare

Pan-Am Games have been rife with problems

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- The always well-meaning, never well-funded Pan-Am Games are taking place this week in the baseball-crazed Dominican Republic, where the populace understands the mechanics and physics of off-speed pitches. But last weekend it seemed everyone from wrestlers to fencers to, yes, baseball players has been trying to figure out how to handle changeups and scheduling curveballs. To wit:

The U.S. baseball team, which had been scheduled to face the Bahamas at the 18,000-seat Estadio Quisqueya in downtown Santo Domingo Sunday evening, learned that morning that the game had been moved to a supplementary field 2 1/2 hours away. The U.S. team won the game in seven innings, 12-0, after a 10-run mercy rule was enforced. Now, after two lengthy bus rides, the Americans must face the host country Monday night at the main Stadium.

The Greco-Roman wrestling finals, originally scheduled for Monday, were moved to Sunday after an 11th-hour meeting of event organizers Saturday night. The U.S. wrestlers awoke Sunday morning to learn that they would be grappling for gold that evening. The exceptionally strong Cuban team ended up winning all seven weight classes."I found out about the change this morning," said Brandon Paulson, the 121-pound U.S. champion, who settled for another second-place finish in a career full of silver medals. "It didn't bother me. I'm ready to wrestle anyone anytime. When you travel a lot, you know they change the schedule on you."

Competitions in women's team foil and women's team sabre were removed from the fencing program after many competitors in those events had already arrived in Santo Domingo. Since the U.S. was able to enter two fencers in individual events and three in team events, two athletes, Hanna Thompson (foil) and Alexis Jemal (sabre) showed up expecting to fence but instead watched from the stands. This debacle was actually yet another chapter in fencing's drawn-out fight with the International Olympic Committee over medal recognition, gender equity and IOC-induced streamlining. It began last year, when the sport's international governing body (FIE) attempted to gain full medal status for women's sabre, hoping to have medal events for teams and individuals in the sport's three weapons: sabre, foil and epee. It's no problem to add women's individual sabre to the program, said the folks from the IOC, but then you have cut the same number of events you bring in. After much dealing, debating and perhaps even some fencing, the FIE added women's individual sabre at the expense of women's team foil, leaving the women two team events shy of the men. At the time the Pan-Am schedule was introduced, fencers were due to have full participation in all team events, as they do at the World Championships. That changed during the last few days, and many fencers ended up feeling like blindsided guests as a canceled party. Some delegations brought enough fencers to field full teams in women's foil and women's sabre, but many did not.

"There was a discussion, going back to May of this year, of a possible adjustment to the fencing program," says Darryl Seibel, the spokesman for the U.S. delegation. "We did expect, as did other countries, that the program would not be changed. We never received any formal notification of changes. As early as this week at a PASO (Pan-American Sports Organization) meeting, we were told there were no changes, so the fencers expected they'd compete and, certainly, we did, too. They prepared, they trained and they should have that opportunity. This didn't affect just U.S. athletes; other athletes were in the same boat."

With fencing competition due to run until Aug. 7, officials are pushing to have an exhibition added to the program, so Jemal and Thompson will be able to get on the piste and perform in front of some spectators. Neither one has complained outwardly. "It's my personality to think everything happens for a reason," said Jemal, a 21-year-old Rutgers University grad who would have been competing in her first major international team tournament. "I'm disappointed because I was looking forward to representing my country, and I knew we were going to medal."

"I'm glad to be here on some level," said Thompson, 19. "I got to march in the ceremony, but then I was thinking: 'Do I still get to stay in the village?' It's kind of dreamlike. I'm here doing everything except what I came here to do."

Sports Illustrated staff writer Brian Cazeneuve covers Olympic sports for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.

 

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