The 2015 edition of the Games will be the third time Canada hosts the PanAms, while the first time when this happened it was in 1967 during the what we now see as the pre-modern era of gymnastics ( we call modern era the period that started with Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci in the 70s).
Here’s a link to the gymnastics results of the 1967 competition and you can find here a summary of the meet.
The second time Canada hosted the Pan-American Games was in 1999 and they took place in the same city that hosted in 1967. They were held in July, specifically between the 24th and 27th of July 1999.
At those Games, Canada surprised by winning the team title. They placed ahead of the United States with a team total of 148.944 against the USA’s 148.364. The bronze medalist was the team from Brazil, with a 147.639.
The all-around was a close competition; Morgan White (USA) took the all-around gold ahead of Canada’s Michelle Conway by a difference of only 0.031; Jennie Thompson (USA) came third behind Conway by a difference of only 0.009.
While Canada and the US were clearly the dominating nations at those Games, other countries also won some medals: Cuba and Venezuela won their only medals of the competition on vault. Arazay Jova took gold for Cuba on vault and Eddilyn Zabaleta took bronze on the event for Venezuela. Argentina took two medals on that competition, both on beam. Barbara Rivarola and Melina Sirolli took silver and bronze respectively.
The all-around champion, Morgan White, went on to win a second medal, a bronze on bars. And Brazil took two individual medals that were earned by the same gymnast, Daiane Dos Santos who was 16 at the time. She took silver on vault and a bronze on floor.
But this was a great competition for Canada, as they took three out of four titles available in the event finals. They won the title on bars (Yvonne Tousek), beam (Lise Leveille), and floor (Yvonne Tousek). And also took silver on bars (Julie Beaulieu) and floor (Michelle Conway).
Also present at the event finals were:
- Jamie Dantzscher who finished 7th on beam; she went on to make the USA Olympic Team for Sydney;
- Denisse López from Mexico who was 4th on vault; she went on to make the Olympic Vault final in Sydney where she finished 8th;
- Daniele Hypolito finished 7th on vault. Daniele, who was 14, went on to represent Brazil at the Sydney Olympics and then to every Olympic Games edition since. She’s currently trying for her fifth Olympics and will be present in Toronto at the 2015 PanAm Gams, at the age of 30;
- Jessica López who finished 8th on floor. At the time Jessica was a junior, as she was only 13 years old. She will be returning to Canada as a highly decorated athlete; like Daniele, she is trying for the Olympics in Rio. She is 29 years old now.
PanAmerican all-around champion, Morgan White, was after the 1999 PanAmerican Games named to the US Olympic Team for Sydney but sadly withdrew with a foot injury. She was replaced by Tasha Schwikert.
All of the Canadian stars (Conway, Beaulieu, Leveille, Tousek) went on to compete at the Olympics in Sydney where, as a team, Canada finished in 9th place in the qualification round. Yvonne Tousek had been present in Atlanta in 1996, so Sydney were her second Olympics..
Two-time PanAmerican medalist Daiane Dos Santos did not attend the Olympic Games in Sydney, as Brazil had only qualified two athletes to the Games and Daiane was not selected. However, this did not prevent her from having a stellar career that included two skills named after her on floor, three Olympic Games paricipations (2004, 2008, 2012) and one floor world title in 2003.
And here are some routines from the 1999 competition:
Baby Daniele Hypolito on floor during the all-around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGXD_7Kd6Bk
Barbara Rivarola making Argentina proud on beam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m10K4DBBYU
Morgan White rocking bars during the all-around final:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D86C_ZG3PRA
Michelle Conway on beam contributing to her team’s gold medal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeL5dXgi9-k
Yvonne Tousek showing off her original choreography on floor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szCySH9jdZM
Article by: Isabel Iz
Photo cover: source