The Toronto PanAm Games were five years ago this month
Was the legacy they left behind worth it?
Hello,
I hope you’re all staying safe and enjoying this hot, humid summer.
This issue takes a deep dive into the 2015 PanAm Games, which were held in Toronto. July 2020 marks the five-year anniversary of these games, so I try to answer the question: was hosting these Games worth it?
Get ready for a lot of math. There’s even a chart.
Let’s get to it.
— Erin @Run the North
Some follow-ups on Harry Jerome
Last week, I wrote about the life and legacy of Canadian sprinter Harry Jerome, and I wanted to follow up on two things.
🏅I wrote that the world record Harry set in 100m was the first world record set by a Canadian. I got this fact from an old Globe and Mail article and the Canadian Encyclopedia, and made the mistake of not cross-checking that against World Athletics’ own records. Reader Matt emailed me to point out that this fact is wrong. It was the fifth world record set by a Canadian.
The previous world records were:
Earl Thomson: Men's 110m hurdles, 14.8, set on August 18, 1920
Myrtle Cook: Women's 100m, 12.0, set on July 2, 1928
Bobby Rosenfeld, Ethel Smith, Jane Bell, Myrtle Cook: Women's 4x100m, 48.4, set on August 5, 1928
Percy Williams: Men's 100m, 10.3, set on August 9, 1930
The world record progressions are tracked by World Athletics here.
These records had all been broken by 1960, which is probably how this error got introduced into Harry’s narrative.
Thanks Matt for pointing this out! I still have a lot of learn about Canadian track history. This has given me the idea to look at every running world record ever held by a Canadian, so look for that in a future issue.
📚Reader Jon emailed with a book recommendation about Harry Jerome: the 2007 biography Running Uphill: The Fast, Short Life of Canadian Champion Harry Jerome by Fil Frazier.
I had not heard of this book until Jon told me about it. Used copies are available on Amazon.ca and it is available at several public libraries, including the Toronto Public library. I am definitely going to read this one.
A few months ago, I put out a list of 72 recommendations of books about running. If you’re looking for something more to read, check that out.
✉️I appreciate hearing from readers like Matt and Jon. I will make mistakes and get stuff wrong and I love hearing about stories, books, history I don’t know about. You can always email me at runthenorthnews@gmail.com
The PanAm Games in Toronto happened 5 years ago this July
From July 10 to 26, the 2015 PanAm Games were held in Toronto.
The PanAm Games are an Olympic-style sporting event for the countries in North and South America. Forty-one different countries participated in 2015, and the Games feature typical summer sports like cycling, swimming, athletics, basketball, baseball, volleyball, etc. — there are actually more sports at the PanAm Games than the Olympics.
They were first held in 1951 and occur every four years, the year before the Summer Olympics. There is no winter equivalent, althougha winter PanAm Games was held once, in 1990.
2015 marked the third time the Games were held in Canada. They were previously held in Winnipeg in 1967 and 1999.
In 2015, 6,132 athletes came and competed in 36 sports, making it the largest multi-sport ever held in Canada — even bigger than the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Why Toronto?
Toronto failed to win an Olympic bid for 1996 and for 2008. 1996 went to Atlanta and 2008 went to Beijing.
In 2009, it was decided that the city would bid for the PanAm Games, which feels a little like a consolation prize but is a good test as to whether a city can handle an Olympic-size event. Mexico City hosted the PanAm Games in 1955 and hosted the Olympics in 1968. Rio de Janeiro hosted the PanAm Games in 2007 and won the 2016 Olympic bid in 2009. I don’t have any references for this, but assuming leaders thought “successful PanAm = better shot at the Olympics” is not a stretch.
It was also seen as an opportunity to invest in Canadian sport.
Chris Rudge, chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said bringing the Pan Am Games to Toronto will benefit summer athletes much the same as winter athletes have reaped the rewards of the 1988 Calgary Games and 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
“Aside from the sport legacy that will drive us into the future, our goal is for Canada's summer athletes to continue the pattern of rising success at major competitions,” Rudge said in a release. “This will be a Pan Am Games to watch.”
“It's a stepping stone,” said Canadian Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. “If you get this and prove yourself worthy… that would make it look good for getting a bid for future Olympics or even world championships.”
The mayor of Toronto at the time was David Miller and he believed that hosting the Games would be good for the city.
“I have to look at that from the city's perspective. Sports has an important part to play, and the way these games have evolved, Toronto will get the benefit of hosting them,” he said to BlogTO in 2009. “We'll have our name known around the Americas, we'll build very strong bonds between Latin America and Toronto, which is very significant with immigration from South America.”
The Games were seen as a development opportunity for Toronto’s Port Lands, an industrial area that was largely undeveloped in 2009. They were also seen as an opportunity to improve the athletic facilities at the University of Toronto and improve local transit.
Toronto was up against two other cities, Lima, Peru and Bogota, Colombia. Lima would win the bid for the 2019 PanAm Games.
So in 2009, Toronto’s PanAm Games were on. Things were planned, construction was had and I remember moving to Corktown, near the athletes’ village, in 2010. As someone who didn’t write a running newsletter at the time, it was a faint echo of a future problem.
How’d Canada do?
Canada sent 713 athletes, making it the largest Canadian national team to be sent to a sporting event. For comparison, Canada sent 314 athletes to the Rio Olympics and 206 athletes to the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.
Canada won 219 medals, 78 gold, 70 silver and 71 bronze, the most in PanAm history.
Due to the volume of medals and the fact this is a running newsletter, I will only look at the athletics for the rest of this newsletter. I will say though, that in my research deep dive, the general performance trends I outline below can be seen in other sports too.
The Canadian athletics team at PanAm was comprised of 90 athletes.
In athletics, Canada won 27 medals: 11 gold, seven silver and nine bronze:
🥇Evan Dunfee, 20km racewalk
🥇Matthew Hughes, 3,000m steeplechase
🥇Mohammed Ahmed, 10,000m
🥇🥇Andre De Grasse, 100m, 200m
🥇Melissa Bishop, 800m
🥇Damian Warner, decathlon
🥇Derek Drouin, high jump
🥇Elizabeth Gleadle, javelin
🥇Christabel Nettey, long jump
🥇Shawn Barber, pole vault
🥈Inaki Gomez, 20K racewalk
🥈Tim Nedow, shotput
🥈Alex Genest, 3,000m steeplechase
🥈Sarah Wells, 400m hurdles
🥈Nathan Brannen, 1,500m
🥈Mike Mason, high jump
🥈Nicole Sifuentes, 1,500m
🥉Rachel Hannah, marathon
🥉Sultana Frizell, hammer throw
🥉Nikkita Holder, 100m hurdles
🥉Lanni Marchant, 10,000m
🥉Charles Philibert-Thiboutot, 1,500m
🥉Geneviève Lalonde, 3,000m steeplechase
🥉Sasha Gollish, 1,500m
🥉Khamica Bingham, Crystal Emmanuel, Phylicia George, Shaina Harrison, Kimberly Hyacinthe, Jellisa Westney, 4x100m relay
🥉Audrey Jean-Baptiste, Raquel Tjernagel, Taylor Sharpe, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, Sage Watson, 4x400m relay
You can see the complete Canadian athletics results here.
The legacy of the Games, for athletes
The PanAm Games are often seen as a stepping stone or development opportunity for athletes. Not every country sends their top-tier athletes. This is especially true for the United States, which I flag because it does skew the success of Canada’s performance.
In 2015, because Canada could have athletes compete in every event as the host, did a combination of both.
To see the immediate boost of these Games on athletes’ performance, let’s look at how Canada did at the 2015 world championships and 2016 Olympics.
2015 world championships: Best worlds ever
After the 2015 Games, Canada would send 44 athletics athletes to the 2015 world championships in Beijing. They would go on to win eight medals, the most Canada has ever won at the world championships.
Seven PanAm athletics medallists would represent Canada at the 2015 world championships. And all seven of them would win world championship medals:
🥇Shawn Barber, pole vault
🥇Derek Droiun, high jump
🥈Brianne Theisen-Eaton, heptathlon
🥈Damian Warner, decathlon
🥈Melissa Bishop, 800m
🥉Andre De Grasse, 100m
🥉Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Brendan Rodney, 4x100m (Justyn Warner was also on the team but he did not compete at the PanAm Games)
The eighth medal was a bronze by Benjamin Thorne in the 20K racewalk. Thorne did not compete at the 2015 PanAm Games.
2016 Olympics: Best Olympics ever
After the 2015 Games, the Canadian Olympic team would go on to win 22 medals at the 2016 Games in Rio, tying the Canadian record for most medals at a Games with Atlanta’s 1996 total.
36 PanAm athletics athletes would go on to represent Canada at the 2016 Olympics.
And six of those would win medals, the highest athletics medal total since 1932:
🥇Derek Drouin, high jump
🥈🥉Andre De Grasse, 200m, 100m
🥉Brianne Theisen-Eaton, heptathlon
🥉Damian Warner, decathlon
🥉Andre De Grasse, Brendon Rodney, Aaron Brown, 4x100m relay (the team also was comprised of Mobolade Ajomale and Akeem Haynes, who did not compete in Toronto in 2015)
The breakout stars
🌟Andre De Grasse became a star of the Rio Games, winning three medals and going toe-to-toe with Usain Bolt.
🌟Evan Dunfee became a Canadian Olympic darling with his surprising fourth place finish in the 50K racewalk in Rio, and the disqualification that briefly rewarded him the bronze. There was an appeal, and Dunfee was put back in fourth and he decided to not pursue it further. Dunfee has continued to compete on an international stage, winning a bronze at the 2019 world championships in the 50K racewalk.
🌟Canada experienced success in field events for the first time in years during this period, with Derek Drouin and Shawn Barber dominating the high jump and pole vault circuit. Both athletes have struggled since 2016 with injuries, but we are seeing the legacy of this field success continue with athletes like Liz Gleadle (javelin), Brittany Crew (shotput) and Alysha Newman (pole vault) be competitive on an international stage.
🌟Combined events athletes Damian Warner and Brianne Thiesen-Eaton became stars at the 2016 Olympics, and were contenders for gold. (It helped Brianne is married to Ashton Eaton, the dominant American decathlete. It made for good rivalry headlines.) Brianne has since retired, but Damian is still on the hunt for international gold — his next chance is the 2020(1) Olympics.
🌟Melissa Bishop’s silver at the world championships in 2015 was the first by a Canadian woman in the 800m. She also broke the Canadian 800m record at those games in the semi-finals, a record that had stood for 14 years.
Why does this matter?
Do these “best evers” mean anything in the larger picture?
If you compare the performance of the Canadian team from the 2011 PanAm Games/2011 world championships/2012 Olympics to the 2015 PanAm Games/2015 world championships/2016 Olympics cycle and to the 2019 PanAm Games/2019 world championships, this is what happens:
Some caveats:
In 2011, the PanAm Game were held in October and the world championships were held in August— this scheduling was reversed for 2015 and 2019, with PanAm taking place before the world championships. According to Wikipedia, an Athletics Canada coach acknowledged in 2011 that Canada was not sending the strongest possible team as a result of poor scheduling.
As the host country in 2015, Canada was able to send a full roster of athletes.
This table is missing the 2013 and 2017 world championships because they are off-cycle from the four-year PanAm Games/Olympics cycle.
It’s not as simple as a one-to-one progression. As you can see from the data above, some athletes found success without competing in the PanAm Games, while others who did well at PanAm struggled to find success on an international stage again.
But the general trend is there: Using the PanAm Games as a stepping stone for bigger events better serves athletes, as opposed to the Games being an afterthought in the season, and investing in performance earlier pays dividends for future, bigger events and future competition cycles. The more money, better facilities, experience, increased support and the confidence that comes from all this make a difference. Success requires investment. And hosting a Games improves this investment.
The legacy of the Games, outside athletic performance
I know there are a lot of issues are international sporting events like the PanAm Games and the Olympics: populations are displaced, cities go into debt, venues are built and then abandoned. But this largely did not seem to be the case in Toronto.
It wasn’t perfect. And larger philosophical questions about the value of cities investing in events like this and not city services are valuable ones. And it sucks we need events like PanAm to get infrastructure like community centres and public transit in the first place.
But let’s breakdown what things look like for Toronto, five years later.
💰The financial legacy of the Games is surprisingly positive
Despite the high price tag of the Games, Toronto is not left with a financial mess.
The Games cost an estimated $2.5 billion dollars, with investments from all three levels of government: local, provincial and federal.
A 2019 report from the organizing committee finds that they came in $38 million under budget, with $60 million earmarked to maintain the venues built for the Games for 20 years, so until 2035.
They boosted Ontario’s GDP by $3.7 billion by 2017.
This 2016 article from the Globe and Mail gives the PanAm legacy mixed reviews, but does make clear that Toronto’s economy that summer was lifted as a result of the Games.
🏟The facilities built for the Games are still in use
Thirty-one competition venues were used for the Games. The venues were divided into three “clusters” — east, central and west — and were comprised of a mix of renovated permanent facilities, temporary facilities and brand-new permanent facilities.
Five permanent new competition venues were built, and all are still in regular use:
Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre: This venue hosted swimming, diving, fencing, modern pentathlon and synchronized swimming events. It’s now a multi-use public sports complex, and has since hosted events for the North American Indigenous Games and the 2017 Invictus Games. It’s a training facility for Canada’s swimming program.
Centennial Park Pan Am BMX Centre: This BMX facility is now in Etobicoke and is managed by the city of Toronto. It hosted the BMX events at the PanAm Games and is now open to the public, and hosts summer camps. It has since hosted BMX Canada Cup events and the BMX national championships.
Tim Hortons Field was used for soccer during the PanAm Games and was built as the new home stadium for the CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats. It’s kinda a stretch to call this a new PanAm venue as its long-term goal was to host the Ti-Cats and replace their old field.
Markham Pan Am Centre: This multipurpose community centre hosted badminton, table tennis and water polo during the PanAm Games. It’s now a public community and aquatics centre for the Markham area.
Mattamy National Cycling Centre is the velodome that was built in Milton, Ont. and was arguably the most controversial of the PanAm venues. Previous velodomes built in Canada had been demolished (Winnipeg, 1967), relocated to Europe (Winnipeg, 1999) or failed (Montreal, 1976). It hosted the track cycling events for the PanAm Games. It’s now home to Cycling Canada’s track program and is a multi-use facility for Milton and has hosted several cycling world cup events.
The athletes village was built on industrial lands in east Toronto and were comprised of five buildings for housing and one building for practice and training. The area is now known as Canary District and the housing is now condos and a residence for George Brown College and the practice facility is now a YMCA with over 10,000 members. (I am a member of this YMCA, and before the pandemic, it was BUSY.)
🏡We have a new city park
The athletes’ village included a park, which is now called Corktown Common. The 18-acre park is a flood barrier for downtown Toronto, features a splash pad, playground and multipurpose fields. It also hosts regular community nights and is a gateway to the Don Valley trail.
🚊Toronto now has a train to the airport from downtown
The UP Express is a train that runs from Union Station in downtown Toronto the the Pearson airport on the outskirts of town. Before this train, you could drive or take a cab or take a really long TTC ride to go to and from the airport.
UP Express’s story started off bumpy as they figured out a price point that would work for users while not throwing money away at maintaining the service. It’s now $9, and someone who takes this train every time I fly, it seems busier ever since that price point was initiated.
Before the pandemic, it was carrying about 10,000 passengers a day and was on route to financial stability.
🎨 We now have an iconic piece of public art
The Toronto sign was meant to be a temporary installation for the duration of the Games, but has proven to be so popular with tourists and locals alike that it became permanent fixture. It’s official name is 3D TORONTO sign, now you know.
The downside is that the city of Toronto had to find money to maintain this newly permanent piece of art: it cost $400,000 to upgrade and maintain it between 2015 and 2019. It was to be replaced with a better version of the sign by the end of 2019.
Similar signs can now be seen in Brampton, Winnipeg and Hamilton.
And if you want the sign to light up with certain colours for a cause, you can request that on the Toronto city website.
🇨🇦It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience
Given how infrequently Canada hosts major summer sporting events — and how it is becoming increasingly unlikely Toronto will ever host the summer Olympics — getting this opportunity is arguably a once-in-a-generation event.
I was at the gold medal women’s basketball game. My mom got me the tickets because I am a huge basketball fan and she knew I’d enjoy the game no matter who was playing. The Canadian women’s team had an amazing tournament and ended up in the gold medal game against the USA. I was surrounded by 3,000 people decked out in red and white, going crazy for athletes whose names they probably didn’t know three weeks ago.
Gymnast Ellie Black got her name chanted like she was an NBA MVP as she went on to win five medals and become Canada’s closing ceremonies flag bearer.
I saw the members of the Dominican Republic team be applauded by commuters when they stepped on a streetcar one day.
I saw a kid in a Subway ask a synchronized swimmer — still in full makeup and with a medal around her neck — for a photo while in line.
I sat close to Cory Joseph at a men’s basketball game, and it was clear he regretted not playing. Because how often do you get to play for a medal for your country IN your country?
Athletes who will never get NBA money or an NBA audience, because of their gender or chosen sport. Getting to be the most famous people in Toronto, and even Canada, for a moment.
I’ll never forget it. And the athletes won’t either.
And when the kids who saw these athletes and turned them into heroes in 2015 are the athletes vying for a spot on the 2024 Olympic team, because they were inspired and had access to a velodome, a BMX circuit or a world-class swimming pool, we’ll know how far-reaching the legacy of these Games will be.
Were the Games worth it?
I’m going to say yes. They were well run. Toronto got infrastructure that is serving the city. More than 700 Canadian athletes got exposure to international level competition, and several of them have gone on to have amazing success afterwards.
I only looked at medals for the sake of of space, but the impact of the Games on other athletes is there. Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse have a healthy rivalry now. Moh Ahmed is one of the best long-distance runners in the world right now. Natasha Wodak didn’t even medal in 2015, and now she holds the PanAm Games record. Our fields events team is the strongest it has ever been.
Swimmer Penny Oleksiak, the breakout star of the 2016 Olympics, didn’t go to the PanAm Games, but got to train in the brand-new PanAm pool for the 2016 Olympics. That worked out for her.
I remember during the Games, people were originally skeptical and annoyed this was happening. But by the end, people were mad that CBC — who held Canadian broadcast rights — wasn’t airing more of the Games live. That’s quite the shift.
Toronto loves to hate stuff, but by the end of the Games, this city had embraced what was happening. It’s just a shame that five years later, it feels forgotten.
Toronto Waterfront marathon goes virtual, Chicago marathon cancelled
This week was another big week for race cancellations.
The Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the largest marathon in Canada, announced the in-person version of their annual race weekend is cancelled and all races will be virtual. The race was originally scheduled for Oct. 18.
For the virtual edition of the race, runners can run any time between Oct. 1 and Oct. 31. In addition to the usual distances of 5K, half-marathon and full marathon, Canada Running series is adding a 10K and a marathon relay to the virtual options.
I’ve seen people online already committing to doing all four distances as a unique virtual challenge.
The Chicago marathon became the fifth world major to fall, cancelling their 2020 race, which was set for Oct. 11. Participants can opt to get a refund or defer to a future year.
It appears a virtual race my be offered in some capacity, but no details have been provided yet.
The Philadelphia marathon was also cancelled this week. That race was scheduled for Nov. 22.
Large marathons that are not cancelled yet include the rescheduled London marathon (currently set for Oct. 4) and the California International Marathon (currently set for Dec. 6). Several smaller races, like Manitoba and Nova Scotia, are still set for the fall. With how well smaller Canadian provinces are doing, I can see it being possible for races like that being OK to go on, as long as they restrict it to local runners. But only time will tell.
That’s it for this week! If you’re reading online or this was forwarded to you by a pal, you can subscribe here:
Run the North comes out on Monday mornings.
Thanks for sticking with me as I come up with different content ideas to keep this newsletter going when there isn’t a lot of running news happening. I appreciate all of you.
Stay safe, thanks for reading and keep on running.
I’ll see you next week.