General Overview

The organization of the VII Pan American games had a lot of obstacles on it's way. The city who originaly was going to be the host of the games, Santiago de Chile, resigned one year after the bloddy coup d'etat which overtrown Salvador Allende's goverment and took the iron fist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet to power. The other city, Sao Paulo, which was nominated as the new host in December 1973, had a meningitis outbreak, causing the brazilian city to also resign.

On the end, Mexico City, making use of it's recently built sport venues for the 1968 Olympic Gams and the 1970 FIFA World Cup, became the savior of the continuity of the Pan American Games. In only one year, the city managed to organize the games without inconvenciences, and Mario Vazquez Raña, which was the president of the Mexican Olympic Comittee, and also of the Organizing comittee for the 1975 games, completed his misson of making one of the best organized Pan American Games ever. This helped him on becoming later the new president of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), until our present days.

A controversy surrounded the fencing team from Chile, which was acussed of having member involved with torturing civilians durign the Pinochet dictatorship. At the end, Chile had i'ts worst performance, winning only two bronze medals.

The Opening Ceremonies

The opening ceremony was held the day 12 October, Hispanity Day, at the legendary Azteca Stadium, with 110.000 spectators attending the event. A massive performance by children, along with a stunt card section, was held at the turf of the arena, preceding the parade of nations, by 3146 athletes. The great controversy were the booes against the US team, as well for the mexican president Luis Echeverria, who was pro-USA on his policies, during his opening speech.. However, in the other hand, they cheered the cuban team, as well for the mexican team, which was the last one to enter the stadium. Rodolfo Gomez lighted the Pan American Flame.

The Competitions

Brazilian athlete João do Pulo, by that time unknow, made two triumphs in the Pan American Games: to be the first black to win the distance jumping, and also beating the world record of the triple jump, with 17.89 m. The mark (45 cm more than the record of Russian athlete Victor Saneyev) was so impressive that surprised the judges and even the electronic meter, which came to 17.50 m.

At the shooting events, the Mexican Olegário Vasquez broke the world record in the form of rifle shooting with compressed air, to earn 394 points in 400 possible. He broke his own record, which was 393 points in 400 possible. On the other hand, the United States beat his own world record of shooting, category speed on silhouette, reaching 391 points of 400 possible. With 375 points, the Brazilians were third in the race.

The mexican rinks saw two legends arise. First, the North American Ray "Sugar" Leonard took the gold in the middle of the half-Pan, repeated the dose in the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and he became a proffesional for a career with memorable collisions against Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler . Moreover, the Cuban Teófilo Stevenson, after the bronze in Cali-1971, took the gold on the heavy category, which he repeated in the 1979 games and on three Olympics (1972, 1976 and 1980). Despite the north american proposals, he never became a proffesional.

At football, the brazilian team had to share the gold with Mexico, since there was no extended time or penalty to decide the final winner. On the other hand, the brazilians made the biggest victory ever on the Pan Am games, by beating the team of Nicaragua 14-0. The gymnasts Cuban Jorge Cuervo and Roberto León dominated the dispute of the sport. The first won four gold medals, two silver and one bronze, against two of gold and three silver obtained by the partner.

The Closing Ceremonies

*Under Construction*

Curious facts of the Games

-Edson Arantes do Nascimento ''Pele'', biggest brazilian football legend, was a honor guest at the opening ceremony.

-In the bottom of the pit: the Cuban Silvio Leonard was one of the highlights of the athletics to win the 100 m. At the end of the event, loosing his speed, he did not see the gap of the stadium, which divided the track from the crowd, and he crushed. On the podium, he had to be carried because of a twist in the knee.

-For lack of official proof showing that they were really women (the femininity test), many athletes could not participate in athletics events on the 1975 games. Official analyses of determination of sex began three days before the events and for various reasons (usually economic) these athletes could not attend.

Final Medal Table