U.S. athletes Jenna Fesemyer (left), Hannah Dederick (middle) and Elizabeth Floch (right) earned Team USA's first podium sweep at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru.

U.S. athletes, including Hannah Dederick (Lake Liberty, Washington), Hagan Landry (Delcambre, Louisiana) and Isaiah Rigo (Cheney, Washington) won gold on the opening night of competition in track and field at the Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru.

Top-Three Moments From the Track

• Dederick led a Team USA sweep in the women’s 400 T54 alongside Jenna Fesemyer (Ravenna, Ohio) in second, and Elizabeth Floch (Spokane Valley, Wash.) in third.
• Seven U.S. athletes won medals in their Parapan American Games debuts, including Landry who won Team USA’s first track and field gold medal in the men’s shot put F40/41.
• Nelya Stary Schasfoort (Avon Lake, Ohio) broke the world record with 4.26-meter leap in the women’s long jump T47. Competing in a combined classification, Schasfoort's mark was good enough for a seventh-place finish.

Team USA Results
12 medals (3 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze)

Gold (3): Hagan Landry (Delcambre, La.) – men’s shot put F40/41 (12.58m), Hannah Dederick (Lake Liberty, Wash.) – women’s 400m T54 (58.96); Isaiah Rigo (Cheney, Wash.) – men’s 400m T52 (1:04.00)

Silver (5): Lex Gillette (Raleigh, N.C.) - men’s long jump T11/12 (6.12m); Marshall Zackery (Ocala, Fla.) – men’s 200m T35 (26.64), Yen Hoang (Vancouver, Wash.) – women’s 400m T53 (1:02.95); Jenna Fesemyer (Ravenna, Ohio) – women’s 400m T54 (59.68), Taleah Williams (Norfolk, Neb.) – women’s long jump T47 (5.16m) 

Bronze (4): Kelsey LeFevour (Chicago, Ill.) – women’s 400m T53 (1:02.97), Gianfranco Iannotta (Garfield, N.J.) – men’s 400m T52 (1:06.19); Catarina Guimaraes (Cranford, N.J.) – women’s 400m T38 (1:10.09), Elizabeth Floch (Spokane Valley, Wash.) – women’s 400m T54 (1:06.00)

World Record: Nelya Stary Schasfoort (Avon Lake, Ohio) – 7th, women’s long jump T47 (4.26m)

Full results can be found at TeamUSA.org/Parapan2019 and Lima 2019’s website. 

Quotes
Hagan Landry
“I’m speechless at the moment. That means the world to me to be able to be the second gold medalist for Team USA and the first on the track. Hopefully I just put a mark down for my teammates so we can go out and get more.”

“The environment was amazing. That was the largest crowd I’ve ever competed in front of. When they brought us out onto the field, it blew my mind. I did not expect that many people with a nearly sold-out stadium. It was unreal. The crowd supported everyone and that really drove me and carried the momentum. Other than winning gold, that will be one of the best memories I take from this—how everyone came together to support each country, not just their own.”

Hannah Dederick
“There’s no words to describe this. I definitely sprinted the hardest I’ve ever sprinted. I loved the entire atmosphere and it was great competition.”

Lex Gillette
“It feels good. The last major international competition we had was the world championships in London, which was two years ago now. To be able to go through the call tent and the tunnel and be inside of the stadium with a decent size crowd and have all of the excitement and sounds of a major international competition is always good. It gets you back in the swing of things. We’ll hopefully go through it again in Dubai [at the 2019 world championships] and of course, the name of the game is going to Tokyo next year and getting on the top of the podium.”

What To Watch
Track and field competition resumes on Sunday with several finals to watch for, including Paralympic silver medalist Sam Grewe (Middlebury, Indiana) in the men’s high jump T42-47/T63-64 alongside Ezra Frech (Los Angeles, California), Paralympic champion Femita Ayenbeku in the women’s 200m T64, Jerome Singleton (Boston, Massachusetts) in the men’s 200m T64, and Kym Crosby (Yuba City, California) in the women’s 100m T13. David Brown (St. Louis, Missouri) and Deja Young (Mesquite, Texas) will also begin their Parapan Am Games campaigns in the men’s 400m T11 heats and women’s 200m T47 heats, respectively.

Get connected

Coverage of the 2019 U.S. Parapan American Team can be found at TeamUSA.org/Parapan2019. Visit TeamUSA.org/USADaily to sign up to receive the USA Daily, a digital news blast that provides Team USA results and highlights each night via email during the Games. Livestream of the Parapan American Games Lima 2019 is also available on TeamUSA.org/Live.

Follow U.S. Paralympics on  Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for updated results throughout the Parapan American Games Lima 2019.