Pan American Games Shrine // Indianapolis 1987

Participating once again in home, like in 1959, when the event was carried on at Chicago, the United States hosted the X Pan American Games, on Indianapolis, from 7-23 August, 1987. The USA athletes conquered 370 medals, 169 golds. Brazil finished on fourth place, with 61 podiums. 4.453 athletes, from 37 countries, on 27 different sports, num dos Jogos mais grandiosos da história. New sports were added, like Canoeing, Handball and Taekwondo, in addition to the Modern Pentathlon, which was not disputed since 1963.

The 10th edition of the games was supossed to be held on the Chile of the dictator Augusto Pinochet, which also resigned as it happened on1975. Ecuador also refused to host the games and the United States finished hosting them (anyway Indianapolis was originally planning to do their bid for 1991). Cuba threatened to boycott the games since they acussed USA on paying $25 millions to the PASO in order to gain the host right. The shadow of boycott also was present when it was discovered that an member of the chilean shooting team, Francisco Zuñiga, was acussed of torturer.

The opening ceremony was done the day 7 August, at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway (host of the traditional Indy 500 races), with a big extravaganza. Walt Disney World Productions was responsable of both opening and closing ceremonies. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was transformed into a stage 1/4 mile wide, filled with 10.000 performers in fantastic costumes incluiding dancers, singers, skydivers, a 100-piece orchestra, steel drummers, barbershop quartets, antique cars, kite flyers, and a 25.000 person animated card section as stunt airplanes performer overhead.

The show, named ''The Magic that's America'' had a duration of 2 hours. It also featured the participation of Disney characters, incluiding Mickey Mouse. Argentinan composer Lalo Schifrin directed a Pan American Fanfare (which you can find at the Multimedia section). Also, an unofficial Pan American Anthem was performed by a christian singer Miss Sandi Patti. The anthem was written by Indianapolis schoolteacher Carol Forbes.

One of the biggest shocks on the X Pan American Games was the Brazilian championship on the basketball events, after beating the favorites, USA, 120 x 115. It was the first time that the americans lost on their own country and also the first one on 34 matches on these games. USA would suffer the same destiny at baseball, since they lost the final against Cuba.

On football, the gold medal would be also conquered by the brazilians, with players like Taffarel, Ricardo Rocha and Rai, which would lift the World Cup in USA seven years later, on 1994. In Boxing, two future world professional champions of the heavy weight category would took part on the games. The american Riddick Bowe got the bronze and Lennox Lewis, representing Canadá, lost the gold against the cuban Jorge González. Both of them would dispute later at 1988 the gold at the Seoul olympics, on South Korea, and Lewis won this time. The american Carl Lewis, winner of nine olympic golds, was also present on Indianapolis, competed at long jumping and finished on first place.

The american archer Denise Parker, with just 13 years old, became the youngest athlete to obtain the gold at the Pan Am Games.

The closing ceremonies were held at Hoosier Dome (today RCA Dome), featuring a fireworks show with a duration of 25 minutes. The musical group Miami Sound Machine performed at the closing (which caused some complains of cuban athletes, since the members of the group were cuban exiles). Gymnast Kelly Garrison-Steves carried the USA flag.

Mario Vazquez Raña stated later, on a conference press, that this were the Best Games in History, even better than the ones he organized back in 1975, at Mexico City.

- Venezuelan had to stay a night outside of the Pan American Village because of the lack of space, problem that would be solved later when some north american athletes were hosted at hotels and made room for the visitors.

-The games saw emerging the controversy caused by the AIDS, which was discovered on that decade. A brazilian swimmer, Ricardo Prado, gave an interview, stating that some athletes were afraid of contracting HIV. At the 90's has become customary distribute condoms in Olympic and Pan American villages.

-Two months before the games, Juny 4, the american Edwin Moses had interrupted a series of 10 years and 107 victories in 400 m with barriers. The North American, gold in the Olympics of 1976 and 1984 in the test, risked to participate at the Pan Am Games after the ''tragedy''. He also took place at Seoul 1988 olympics, but he only won the bronze.

COUNTRY		GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
1	USA	169	120	81	370
2	Cuba	75	52	48	175
3	Canada	30	56	75	161
4	Brazil	14	14	33	61
5	Argentina	12	14	22	48
6	Mexico	9	11	18	28
7	Venezuela	3	12	12	25
8	Colombia	3	8	13	24
9	Puerto Rico	3	6	20	29
10	Costa Rica	3	4	6	13
11	Jamaica	2	3	8	13
12	Uruguay	2	2	2	6
13	Chile	1	2	4	7
14	Suriname	1	0	1	2
15	Peru	0	4	3	7
16	Dominican Republic	0	3	9	12
17	Panama	0	3	1	4
18	Bahamas	0	2	3	5
19	Ecuador	0	1	5	6
20	US Virgin Islands	0	1	1	2
21	Trinidad & Tobago	0	1	1	2
22	Guatemala	0	0	2	2
23	Netherlands Antilles	0	0	1	1
24	Bermuda	0	0	1	1
25	El Salvador	0	0	1	1
26	Guyana	0	0	1	1
27	Paraguay	0	0	1	1
28	Aruba	0	0	1	1