U.S. athletes at the Closing Ceremony of the Parapan American Games on Sept. 1, 2019 in Lima, Peru.
LIMA, Peru – The Parapan American Games Lima 2019 drew to a close Sunday following 11 days of competition between approximately 1,890 athletes from 33 nations. U.S. athletes delivered stellar performances to collect 185 medals, including 58 golds, 62 silvers and 65 bronzes, to finish second in the medal count behind Brazil.
Team USA athletes became medalists in nearly every sport the U.S. competed in, including badminton, cycling, goalball, judo, powerlifting, shooting, sitting volleyball, soccer 7-a-side, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, track and field, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair rugby.
Of Team USA’s 257 athletes, 195 will leave Lima with a podium finish at the Parapan Games. Multi-medalists included track and field’s Jaleen Roberts (Kent, Washington) who won three individual events and one relay gold medal, and swimming’s Carson Sanocki (Charlotte, North Carolina) who won four medals, including two individual golds and one relay gold medal.
Every team sport from the U.S. found the podium in Lima, with wheelchair rugby, men’s wheelchair basketball and women’s sitting volleyball capturing gold. The men’s and women’s goalball teams, men’s sitting volleyball team, and the women’s wheelchair basketball team took silver. Seven-a-side soccer claimed its first Parapan medal with bronze.
The wheelchair tennis team had an incredibly successful showing in Lima, with every athlete leaving the Parapan Games with a medal. Highlighted by a gold-medal finish from the women’s doubles team of Emmy Kaiser (Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky) and Dana Mathewson (San Diego, California), Team USA athletes led the medal count on the tennis courts.
U.S. athletes added their names to the record books with six world records set in track and field competition in Lima. Nelya Stary Schasfoort (Avon Lake, Ohio) led the way with two world records in the women’s long jump T47 (4.26m) and women’s 400m T47 (1:08.90). Other records were established by Josh Cinnamo (San Diego, California), Sam Grewe (Middlebury, Indiana), Sebastiana Lopez Arellano (New Braunfels, Texas) and Jessica Heims (Swisher, Iowa).
Team USA leaves Lima, Peru, with more than just medals earned. U.S. athletes and teams earned three team qualifications and one individual qualification for the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. Teams that qualified for Tokyo included: men’s goalball, men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair rugby. Tahl Leibovitz of table tennis earned an individual qualification for Tokyo.
Rose Hollermann (Elysian, Minnesota) grabbed a silver medal in Lima with the women’s wheelchair basketball team and was selected by her fellow athletes to serve as the U.S. flag bearer for Closing Ceremony.
During the closing ceremony, the re-election of U.S. swimmer Ileana Rodriguez was announced as the Americas Paralympic Committee athlete representative. She was first elected to her role at the Parapan American Games in Toronto in 2015. Rodriguez presented a symbolic gift on behalf of the athletes to all volunteers of the Games. After speeches given by Carlos Neuhaus, president of the organizing committee; Julio Cesar Avila, president of the Americas Paralympic Committee, the APC flag was exchanged from the mayor of LIma to the mayor of Santiago, Chile.
The next edition of the Parapan American Games will take place in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 17-23, 2023.