NUMBERS TO KNOW:
Team USA has brought home 154 Medals at the halfway mark of the Pan American Games #Santiago2023 and guaranteed another medal with Zane Schweitzer in the Gold Medal SUP Surf matchup on Monday.
TOTAL MEDALS: 154*
GOLD🥇61
SILVER 🥈 44
BRONZE🥉49
Big number looking ahead for @Paris2024 is 13 qualified athlete spots for Paris Olympics in 9 events
10 of 13 athletes directly qualified for Paris 2024 through performances at the PanAm Games in Boxing, Modern Pentathlon, and Sport Climbing.
As always keep track all Paris 2024 Qualification Here
Just a note 18 of the 154 Medals have come in non Olympic sports or events. US Water Skiing leads the way in this category with 9 medals as Regina Jaquess won at least 3 medals for the 6th consecutive PanAmGames by winning 3 GOLD🥇 in Women’s Water Skiing.
LOOK AHEAD: WEEK 2 - TEAM QUALIFICATION
Most of the Paris 2024 Qualification will focus on Team USA putting the Team in Team USA.
Team USA can qualify can qualify 88 athletes in 8 TEAM sports for Paris 2024
FOUR TEAM USA sports have a really good chance to qualify for Paris
USA Water Polo teams are both the Men and Women are Gold Medal Favorites. The USAWP men have won the last seven PanAm gold medals and the USAWP women have won the last six PanAm gold medals.
USA Equestrian Jumping Team is a medal favorite and with a medal would qualify for Paris 2024.
USA Artistic Swimming who won two medals at World Championships have their first crack to qualify for Paris Olympics and based on their performance at Worlds should be a considered a gold medal favorite in Artistic Swimming.
THREE team sports for Team USA are underdogs for the gold medals and the Paris automatic berths.
US Field Hockey teams (Gold Medal Favorite is Argentina)- Both US Men and US Women are 1-1 in pool play and face a must win to get into the SFs. US Women have already lost to Argentina and would not see them until the Gold Medal Game while the US Men lost to Canada and would likely see Argentina in the SFs if they advance. A medal though would provide the US Field Hockey a chance to enter the last chance tournament.
Men’s Handball (Gold Medal Favorites: Brazil and Argentina) USA is in the same pool as Argentina, Cuba, and Uruguay and plays Argentina to begin the tournament. The first game will be huge to see if US Men’s Handball Team will be a medal contender and win Team USA’s first medal since 2003.
AND 50-50 Last Chance
Rhythmic Gymnastics (Gold Medal Favorite: Brazil) The good news is Brazil is already qualified for Paris. Team USA will have a tough fight with Mexico who was pretty impressive at 2023 Worlds for the Paris Qualification spot which might be the silver medal.
ICYMI: here is another link to TeamUSATracker Team Qualification Preview written before the PanAm Games
There will also be some other qualification opportunities in Sailing, Table Tennis, Breaking, Archery, and Trampoline. Archery and Trampoline are a little bit tricky since they are lower priority Olympic qualification events taking a back stage to other qualification events after PanAm Games. Breaking is the only sport that a US athlete can qualify by name in Week 2.
IN FOCUS: WHO QUALIFIED FOR PARIS AND WHAT IS NEXT FOR ATHLETES WHO JUST MISSED
Sport Climbing
PanAm Games Medal Count:🥇4 🥈 4🥉1
Paris 2024 Spots Qualified: 4 Paris 2024 Spots Available: 4 Success Rate: 100%
Athletes Qualified: Jesse Grupper, Natalia Grossman, Piper Kelly, Samuel Watson
USA Sport Climbing won🥇🥈 in every Sport Climbing event contested at Pan Am Games. Team USA’s Women’s Speed Climbing Team for Paris is set as Worlds 🥈Emma Hunt joins Piper Kelly. Men’s Combined Team for Paris is set as Worlds 🥈Colin Duffy joins Jesse Grupper. Sean Bailey who missed out on Olympic spot by one spot for the second Straight Olympics reflected in this Instagram post.
Next Up for Qualification:
The remaining Women’s Combined spot and Men’s Speed will need to come through Olympic Qualifier Series that consists of two events in May and June.
Part I: Shanghai May 16- May 19
Part II: Budapest June 20-June 23
In men's speed climbing only 32 athletes will qualify for the Olympic Qualifier Series. Team USA will likely have at least 2 men in the men’s speed event (John Brosler (who competed at PanAm Games but was injured) and Zach Hammer) based on current rankings. PanAm 🥈Noah Brastchi is on the outside looking in by a few spots. Competition in speed climbing will be fierce as only the Top 6 athletes (capped at 2 per country) will get Paris berths.
In women’s combined the Top 10 athletes will get Paris 2024 berths and US Women will bring Brooke Raboutou (#3 in World), Annie Sanders (16 year old -former Youth champ), Kyra Condie (2020 Tokyo Olympian). Team USA is heavily expected to qualify the 2nd spot in Women’s Combined competition and the big story will be whether the veteran Brooke Raboutou or the youngster Annie Sanders who both finished in the Top 8 at World Championships get that final spot. Raboutou has been twice one spot off qualifying for her second Olympics and posted this on Instagram post PanAm Games “Repeated heartbreak hurts, but pain heals, and fuels growth”
Boxing
PanAm Games Medal Count:🥇2 🥈 2🥉2
Paris 2024 Spots Qualified: 5 Paris 2024 Spots Available: 13 Success Rate: 38%
Athletes Qualified: Jennifer Lozano (Women’s 50KG), Jajaira Gonzalez (Women’s 60KG), Morelle McCane (Women’s 66KG), Jahmal Harvey (Men’s 57KG), Josh Edwards (Men’s 92KG+)
In the 8 weight classes USA Boxing did not qualify at PanAm Games- 4 of 8 boxers lost to the eventual gold medalists in their weight class.
Next Up for Qualification:
7 of the 8 boxers who competed at PanAm Games won a medal or multiple medals of the four main international boxing events so they will have a second and third chance to qualify their spots. That list includes 2021 World Championship medalists 🥇Robby Gonzalez, 🥈 Omari Jones and 🥈 Roscoe Hill and 2020 Tokyo Olympian Naomi Graham. USA Boxing will have Olympic Trials in December where they will determine the 54KG women’s weight class representative for Paris and find alternates in 12 of the 13 weight classes. The following two Olympic Qualification Tournaments will usually give out Paris 2024 berths to the four semifinalists (so more spots than PanAmGames) and will not include any boxers from nations who have already qualified in that weight classes (so could be a weaker field than PanAmGames- good news for Jamar Talley (92 KG) will not face a 2 time Olympic Gold Medalist in the first round)
World Olympic Qualifying Tournament#1 in Busto Arsizio, Italy
(February 29, 2024 to March 12, 2024)
World Olympic Qualifying Tournament #2 in Bangkok, Thailand
(May 23, 2024 to June 5, 2024)
Shooting
PanAm Games Medal Count: 🥇5 🥈 5🥉8
Spots Qualified: 3 Spots Available: 8 Percentage: 37.5%
Team USA qualified a full men and women’s shotgun(Skeet and Trap) teams after the PanAm Games. 6 spots remain for Team USA in rifle and pistol events and Team USA missed narrowly qualifying spots in 3 events - Men’s 10M air file (Silver: Ryan Kissel), Men’s 10M Air Pistol (Silver: James Hall) Men 50M rifle 3 positions (Silver: Timothy Sherry, Bronze: Lucas Kozeniesky)
Next Qualification Tournaments:
CAT (Championships of the Americas) XIV Tournament March 31 to April 7, 2024
Last Chance Olympic Qualification - Rifle and Pistol April 11 to April 19, 2024
The placement at PanAm Games should make Team USA a favorite to pick up 3 more spots at the CAT XIV Tournament in early April.
Events Team USA is still looking to qualify: Men’s 10M Air Rifle, Men’s 50 Rifle 3 positions, RFP Men’s Pistol, Men’s 10M Air Pistol, Women’s 25m pistol
Since they have not qualified one spot yet in Men’s 10m Air Pistol they will need to qualify one spot at CAT Tournament and the second qualification spot at the Final Olympic Qualification or based off rankings. Also because of that Team USA has not qualified all spots in Men’s 10M Air Rifle, Men’s 10M Air Pistol they currently are missing 3 mixed teams in those events at the Olympics.
Modern Pentathlon
🥇0 🥈1🥉1 (all medals in non Olympic events)
Spots Qualified: 1 Spots Available: 2 Percentage: 50%
Athlete Qualified: Jess Davis
Brendan Anderson who medaled in the two non Olympic events (Men’s Relay, Mixed Relay) missed qualification by one position. Team USA might not qualify a male modern pentathlon athlete for the first time ever since George Patton (yes that George Patton) who was the first athlete to compete in this event for Team USA at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912 as usually the PanAM Games provide the best opportunity for Olympic qualification.
What’s Up Next for Qualification:
7 remaining Modern Pentathlon ranking events (including 2024 UIPM Worlds and 5 Pentathlon World Cup events) that will help determine 9 athletes who will qualify for Paris 2024 based on rankings. After PanAm Games Brendan Anderson is ranked #36 and Tristen Bell is ranked #53 so they have an upward climb. If they were do well in just one event they should make it the World Championships- A Top 3 finish among non qualified athletes at Worlds would result in qualification as well. A medal performance is rare for Team USA as only 5 athletes have medaled at Modern Pentathlon World Championships in the individual event. The last medalist for Team USA was 25 years ago in 1998 Vakhtang Iagorashvili. The highest American not qualified right now is on the women’s side where Phaelen French is ranked #32 after the PanAm Games.
2024 Modern Pentathlon Calendar
UIPM Pentathlon Challenger Egypt Jan 24- Jan 28
UIPM Pentathlon World Cup Egypt March 5-March 10
UIPM Pentathlon World Cup Italy April 9- April 14
UIPM Pentathlon World Cup Budapest April 23-APril 28
UIPM Pentathlon World Cup Sofia, Bulgaria May 8-May 13
UIPM Pentathlon World Cup Finals Antalya, Turkey May 22-May 26
UIPM Pentathlon World Championships Zhengzhou, China June 10-June 16
Diving
🥇0 🥈0🥉5 (one medal was in a Non Olympic event)
Spots Qualified: 0 Spots Available: 2 Percentage: 0%
Max Flory (Team USA’s highest finisher at 2023 Worlds) was the only PanAm diver not to make the finals. 12 years after David Boudia won gold in 10M Platform in London - USA Diving looks like it could be danger of not qualifying or maybe only qualifying one male diver in the 10M Platform for the first time ever. 10M Platform was added to Olympics in 1908 and since added to the program Team USA is the most successful nation in history with 12 gold medals including 3 multiple gold medalists Greg Louganis, Sammy Lee, and Bob Webster and 30 overall medals.
What’s Up Next for Qualification:
2024 World Championships in Doha, Qatar in February 2 to February 10, 2024
Final qualification will be to 12 divers who have not already qualified at the World Championships. Team USA will need to qualify three 10M spots (2 male, 1 female) and two synchronized teams (Men’s 10M synchro platform, Women’s 3M synchro springboard)