Redemption At Last: Three U.S. Athletes Receive Pan Am Games Medal Upgrades

Naomi Graham competes at the Pan American Games Lima 2019.

Naomi Graham, Boxing
Naomi Graham doesn’t take losses very well. She takes them personal. It’s a trait that goes back to her childhood when battling her five siblings for space in mom’s car or roughhousing with them during a game of pick-up basketball in the driveway.

Graham eventually took up boxing, and she’s found much success, including finishing third in her class at the 2018 world championships. However, those rare losses still stick with her. The feeling of missing out on a trip to the Olympic Games Rio 2016 remains painful. And more recently, Graham’s loss on decision to Colombia’s Jessica Caicedo Sinisterra in the Pan Am Games middleweight gold-medal match lingered long after the flight home.

“During the fight, I felt like I had won,” Graham, who is originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina, said. “I went back and looked at it and still thought I was the better fighter. I felt down about it, but I couldn’t let it keep me down.”

Graham, 31, was awarded the silver medal in Lima, and she used the loss as fuel to get even better in the ring. However, one day in late November 2019, the boxer received a message from a friend. The Pan Am Games standings had been updated, and Graham was listed as the gold medalist.

The “new” results left Graham confused, so she contacted her coach, who was also oblivious to the new results. Graham dug a little more and discovered that her opponent had been stripped of her gold medal for doping allegations.

“Toward end of (2019) they told me situation, and it was not a good reason,” Graham said. “I felt like it was something I earned. I felt like it was a fight I won.”

Graham received a letter stating she would need to return her silver medal; in return, she would receive the gold medal she knew was hers all along.

“It was a really good feeling when I found out the news,” Graham said. “I was happy to know I got the gold-medal spot.”

Although she now has the hardware from Lima, Graham, who trains in the Army World Class Athlete Program in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said she perhaps didn’t leave everything in the ring. The experience is a reminder, she said, that she can never let up in her quest to be at her best.

“I took it to myself, that was my loss,” Graham said of the initial sting of getting second place, before she was reallocated a gold medal. “I can’t point fingers anywhere else and can only get better.”

Taylor Abbott competes in the Men's 10km race during the Open Water Swimming of the Pan Pacific Swimming Championship on Aug. 14, 2018 in Chiba, Japan.

Taylor Abbott, Swimming
Taylor Abbott led the pack of swimmers in the men’s 10,000-meter open water race in Lima before he stopped to grab a quick drink of water. When he rejoined the pack, he was in 15th place and facing lots of swimmers to catch.

The Cedar Park, Texas, native made up ground one swimmer at a time, and he was in seventh place with about 300 meters to go in the final loop of the race. That’s when he remembered something he had once seen and admired.

“I remember watching a guy break away from the pack and swim on his own,” Abbott said, “so that’s what I did.”

Distance swimmers typically travel in packs so they can draft off of each other. Abbott broke away and veered to the left, swimming his own race. He had no idea what place he was in, but he remembered seeing his coach jumping up and down to encourage him to wrench out that final stretch.

“On my right, I could see people I was passing. On my left I saw my coach jumping up and down on the side of the lake,” Abbott said.

The race ended, and Abbott still didn’t know how well he had done. 

The first person he saw after the race was the team doctor, who informed Abbott he’d won the bronze medal.

“It was an amazing experience to medal,” Abbott said. “I was proud of how I raced, and I’m glad I made tactical decisions when I made them.”

Fast forwarding to March 2020, Abbott decided to retire from swimming. His senior year at the University of Tennessee was canceled because of the COVID-19 global pandemic, and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 had been postponed a year. His swimming career was uncertain at the time, so he focused on graduating and moving on.

That 10K in Lima proved to be his final race.

Abbott was sitting on his couch in Knoxville when he received a message from his coach. The text was a photo of a news link showing Argentina’s Guillermo Vitto Bertola getting stripped of his silver medal.

Abbott later learned the news was true, and the young man who trained as a youth in the waters of nearby Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, was named the silver medalist.

“It was very exciting,” said Abbott, who remains retired at age 22. “It’s still one of the most proud moments of my career.”Taylor Abbott led the pack of swimmers in the men’s 10,000-meter open water race in Lima before he stopped to grab a quick drink of water. When he rejoined the pack, he was in 15th place and facing lots of swimmers to catch.

The Cedar Park, Texas, native made up ground one swimmer at a time, and he was in seventh place with about 300 meters to go in the final loop of the race. That’s when he remembered something he had once seen and admired.

“I remember watching a guy break away from the pack and swim on his own,” Abbott said, “so that’s what I did.”

Distance swimmers typically travel in packs so they can draft off of each other. Abbott broke away and veered to the left, swimming his own race. He had no idea what place he was in, but he remembered seeing his coach jumping up and down to encourage him to wrench out that final stretch.

“On my right, I could see people I was passing. On my left I saw my coach jumping up and down on the side of the lake,” Abbott said.

The race ended, and Abbott still didn’t know how well he had done. 

The first person he saw after the race was the team doctor, who informed Abbott he’d won the bronze medal.

“It was an amazing experience to medal,” Abbott said. “I was proud of how I raced, and I’m glad I made tactical decisions when I made them.”

Fast forwarding to March 2020, Abbott decided to retire from swimming. His senior year at the University of Tennessee was canceled because of the COVID-19 global pandemic, and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 had been postponed a year. His swimming career was uncertain at the time, so he focused on graduating and moving on.

That 10K in Lima proved to be his final race.

Abbott was sitting on his couch in Knoxville when he received a message from his coach. The text was a photo of a news link showing Argentina’s Guillermo Vitto Bertola getting stripped of his silver medal.

Abbott later learned the news was true, and the young man who trained as a youth in the waters of nearby Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, was named the silver medalist.

“It was very exciting,” said Abbott, who remains retired at age 22. “It’s still one of the most proud moments of my career.”