Team USA Notes & Storylines

  • The final 2019 U.S. Pan American Team includes 643 athletes (321 men and 322 women).
  • Team USA will be competing in 36 sports.
  • The 2019 roster features 91 Olympians – including 34 Olympic medalists and 19 Olympic champions.
  • Twelve members of the U.S. Pan American Team are also Youth Olympians.
  • A total of 47 states are represented (by hometown) on the U.S. roster; California leads with 144 athletes.
  • Team USA includes 67 athletes who speak Spanish.
  • The youngest and oldest members on the team are 15-year-old archer Casey Kaufhold (March 6, 2004; Lancaster, Pennsylvania) and 57-year-old sailor Ian Jones (Sept. 1, 1961; Buffalo, New York). Additionally, 36 athletes are age 17 and younger and there are 22 athletes who are 40 and over.
  • Three-time Olympian and eight-time Olympic medalist Nathan Adrian (swimming; Bremerton, Washington) was diagnosed with testicular cancer in January 2019. The Pan American Games will mark only his second international competition since his diagnosis in January.
  • Four-time national champion and boxing’s team captain Virginia Fuchs (Houston, Texas) makes her Pan American Games debut after winning a gold medal at the Pan American Games Qualifier only a few weeks after receiving in-patient treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder in spring 2019.
  • Kanak Jha (table tennis; Milpitas, California) competed for Team USA at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and Summer Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018, where he won a bronze medal. He has been crowned the U.S. men’s singles national champion every year since 2016.
  • Three athletes have served as a U.S. flag bearer at an Olympic or Pan American Games – Khatuna Lorig (Chula Vista, California) (2008 Olympic Games), Jason Read (Ringoes, New Jersey) (2011 Pan American) and Kim Rhode (2015 Pan American).
  • Twenty-five athletes have military ties – including 23 with Army, one with Air Force and one with the Marine Corps. USA Shooting has the most representation, featuring 10 athletes with military ties.
  • Over 30 sports are sending current or former collegiate athletes who represented their schools in outside competition.