Jonathan Octeus competes against Angel Matias (Puerto Rico) in the men's 3x3 basketball finals at the Pan American Games Lima 2019 on July 29, 2019 in Lima, Peru.
Over the course of 19 days of competition nearly 400 current or former collegiate athletes represented Team USA at the Pan American Games Lima 2019. Over 250 of those collegiate athletes brought home a medal and contributed to Team USA winning the total medal count by more than 100 medals. The collegiate medalists represented over 70 schools, with Stanford leading with 12 medals.
Team sports with 100-percent collegiate representation stacked up well against some of the world’s best competition. The men’s basketball team, comprised entirely of current student-athletes from the BIG EAST Conference, brought home bronze while the women’s basketball team brought home silver. In 3x3 basketball’s first appearance at the Pan American Games, the U.S. men and women both won gold. The women’s softball team, featuring rising seniors Rachel Garcia (University of California, Los Angeles) and Dejah Mulipola (University of Arizona) won gold.
Both the men’s and women’s water polo teams captured gold, outscoring their opponents 117-27 and 142-24, respectively. By winning the Pan America Games, the men secured a spot at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Lee Kiefer, four-time NCAA champion for Notre Dame, won the women’s fencing foil gold medal, her third straight Pan American gold medal. She is the first fencer, male or female in any discipline, to win the Pan American Games three times.
Several athletes from Team USA will be returning to college this fall with a gold medal, including Daniel Carr (swimming, University of California, Berkeley), Daton Fix (wrestling, Oklahoma State University), Nick Itkin (fencing, University of Notre Dame), Emilia Migliaccio (golf, Wake Forest University), Chris Nilsen (track and field, University of South Dakota) and Charles Swanson (swimming, University of Michigan).
The collegiate representation at the Pan American Games was strong and indicates a bright future for Team USA.
