The Peruvian women’s goalball team received a warm welcome from fans in its debut against the experienced team from the US in the group stage of this amazing Para sport that promises to be one of the best performances of Lima 2019.

The Peruvian fans lived up to their role as hosts by chanting at the top of their lungs the memorable “como no te voy a querer.” Before the event started, the legendary “Arriba Peru” echoed through the Miguel Grau Coliseum of Callao, boosting the confidence of the three Peruvian goalball players.

The Peruvian trio was unable to beat the North American team, who defined the match in the first period. However, the Para athletes defended the Peruvian flag with honor and spirit, to the rhythm of the encouraging words and applause coming from the stands. They also backed their opponent’s defense into a corner in more than one occasion, forcing them to repel hard throws.

When the match ended, the Peruvian goalball players approached the stand, where the public applauded and greeted them. With this in mind, goalball player Diana Flores invited all Peruvians to continue cheering for Peru’s national goalball team.

“The energy that the fans transmit to us is something that allows us to keep going and reinforces our belief that representing Peru is the best thing that’s ever happened to us. That’s why, tomorrow we’re going for the win,” she stated with excitement.

She also thanked Lima 2019 for the chance it gives goalball players to be able to put into practice their abilities in first-rate sports facilities. “This makes our work on the field of play more valuable and it’s the best reward for our intense training,” she concluded.

Additionally, this Monday 26, the three tough Peruvians will seek to redeem themselves against Canada, at 16:15. There is no doubt that the Peruvian fans will continue supporting the Para athletes unconditionally, who, through their efforts, wish to leave Peru at the top of the largest Para sports event in the continent. 

As a sign that the best athletes of the Americas and even the world are in our country, a new world record was established during the Para athletics competitions at the new Athletics Stadium VIDENA.

In the shot put F46 category (athletes with a physical impairment in the upper limbs), the American Joshua Cinnamo set a new world record of 16m49cm. This way, he won the gold medal in the competition and surpassed his previous mark of 15m98cm in Chula Vista, California, on May 28, 2017.

TICKETS ON SALE

To see these outstanding Para athletes participating in the Parapan American Games, you can purchase tickets ranging from PEN 10. There is a 50% discount for children under 18, senior citizens and people with an impairment. Tickets can be bought at the VIDENA ticket offices (Gates 1 and 10) and the 11 authorized points of sale around Lima.

Tickets can be also purchased online through lima2019.pe/tickets, where you will also find the detailed competition schedules. In the case of e-tickets, printing will no longer be necessary since customers can show their e-ticket from their mobile phones at the entrance of the sports venue

It is worth emphasizing this, because, tonight, the cheering of the Peruvian fans was heard from beginning to end in the women’s sitting volleyball competition between Peru and United States. 

Although the Peruvian team lost against the powerful team from USA, Peruvian fans cheered with their classic: Peru, Peru, Peru! 

Women, men and children cheered at each serve or spike performed by the members of the female national team. 

If the Peruvian fans had already shown us their constant support in every match during the Pan American Games, the Parapan American Games were no exception, as the Callao Sports Center vibrated with excitement tonight. 

At the beginning of the ceremony, the Peruvian flag was carried by the gold medalists of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, surfer Daniella Rosas and fronton player Kevin Martinez.

The traditional parade of the delegations participating in the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games was led by the main representatives of the countries competing in the sixth edition of the event, inaugurated today at the National Stadium.

The Peruvian delegation received the most applause, like at the Pan American Games, led by Para taekwondo fighter Angélica Espinoza. She is one of the main contenders to win medals at the Parapan American Games, which began this past Thursday.

Among the main flagbearers were Gustavo “Gusti” Fernández, first in the wheelchair tennis world ranking and winner of three Grand Slams contested this year, who led the Argentinian team.

The flagbearer for the United States was Katie Holloway, gold medalist in the Rio 2016 and Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and silver medalist in London 2012 in sitting volleyball. Costa Rica’s flagbearer was Para swimmer Camila Haase.

Carrying Brazil’s flag was the world’s best goalball player, Leomon Moreno da Silva, who led a delegation that has come to win first place like they did in Rio 2007, Guadalajara 2011 and Toronto 2015.

The flagbearer for Mexico was judoka Eduardo Ávila, who will compete in the 81 kg category. His track record includes a gold medal in the Rio 2007, Guadalajara 2011 and Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games, as well as a gold medal in the Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The Colombian leader was Alejandro Perea, one of the best Para cyclists in the world and current world champion. He will compete in the Para cycling track individual time trial and pursuit events and in the Para cycling road sprint and time trial events.

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In the parade, Darwin Castro, an athlete with visual impairment, carried the Ecuadorian flag. He competes in the 1500- and 5000-meter events alongside his guide, Sebastián Rosero, who won the bronze medal in 5000 meters at Toronto 2015.

Chile’s flagbearer was Para swimmer Alberto Abarza, who won the National Sports Award of Chile and has five Parapan American records in 50, 100 and 200 meters freestyle and in 50 and 100 meters backstroke. He is ranked first in the Para swimming World Series.

Para swimmer Javier Hernández is the flagbearer for Puerto Rico, while Para badminton player Raúl Anguiano led the Guatemalan delegation. Akira López, who will compete in 100 meters, was chosen as the leader of the delegation of Nicaragua.

Meanwhile, Para athlete Getrudis Ortega was tasked with leading Panama in the parade.  The Para athletics multi-medalist, Omara Durand, was chosen as flagbearer for Cuba. She is considered the fastest woman in the Paralympic world, surpassing the 12-second barrier in 100 meters.

Additionally, the other flagbearers were Elliott Loonstra from Aruba (Para taekwondo), Sean Cooke from Barbados (Para athletics, Steve Wilson from Bermuda (boccia), Stephanie Chan from Canada (Para table tennis), Herbert Aceituno from El Salvador (Para powerlifting), Gibran Sarfaraz from Guyana (Para table tennis), Lounevie Pierre from Hait (Para athletics), Carlos Velásquez from Honduras (Para athletics).

Finally, the following were also flagbearers: Chadwick Campbell from Jamaica (Para athletics), Melissa Nair Tillner Galeano from Paraguay (Para athletics), José Manuel Abud from the Dominican Republic (Para powerlifting), John Jaldini from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Para swimming), Chivaro Belfort from Suriname (Para athletics), Nyoshia Cain-Claxton from Trinidad and Tobago (Para athletics), Carmelo Milán from Uruguay (Para shooting) and Belkys Mota from Venezuela (Para swimming).

The team consists of 257 Para athletes, with a total of 36 Paralympic champions, who will compete in Peru starting on August 23.

 With the goal of winning as many medals as possible, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced the team that will compete at the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games, which will take place from August 23 to September 1 in Peru.

The US delegation consists of 159 men and 98 women, including six guides. The US will participate in 16 sports, with the exception of football 5-a-side. There are 257 athletes on the list; 114 of them have experience competing in Paralympic Games.

The US will arrive at Lima 2019 with 67 Paralympic medalists; 36 of them are Paralympic champions, demonstrating the power of team USA. The women’s and men’s wheelchair basketball team and women’s sitting volleyball will arrive in Lima as the current Paralympic champions.

Other notable athletes of the US delegation are four-time Paralympic cycling medalist Joe Berenyi, three-time Paralympic champion Jeremy Campbell and two-time Paralympic champion Deja Young.

Other Paralympic champions that will be in Lima are: Brian Bell, Aaron Gouge, Trevon Jenifer, Michael Paye, Matt Scott, Steven Serio, Joshua Turek y Jake Williams, from the men’s wheelchair basketball team, and Megan Blunk, Abigail Dunkin, Rose Hollermann, Darlene Hunter, Becca Murray and Natalie Schneider, from the women’s wheelchair basketball team.

Lisa Czechowski (goalball) and Jennifer Johnson, Tahl Leibovitz and Terese Terranova (table tennis) will also be in Lima. Para athletes David Brown, Jeremy Campbell, Breanna Clark, Gianfranco Iannotta, Jerome Singleton, Deja Young and Jerome Avery will also compete at Lima 2019.

And, finally, the women’s sitting volleyball team will also be present: Monique Burkland, Tia Edwards, Heather Erickson, Katie Holloway, Kaleo Kanahele, Nichole Millage, Nicole Nieves, Alexis Shifflett, Lora Webster and Bethany Zummo.

INTERESTING FACTS

Team USA is bringing 31 Spanish-speaking Para athletes. Their youngest Para athlete is Para swimmer Keegan Knott (14), while the oldest athlete is Para table tennis player Terese Terranova (72).

A married couple will compete in Para athletics for team USA: Kym Crosby and Erik Hightower. A total of 23 Para athletes coming to Peru have times to the military: 16 with the army, three with the Air Force, two with the Marine Corps and two with the US Navy. The men’s sitting volleyball team has the most military veterans, with six Para athletes on the team. 

• With information from the US Paralympic Committee

LIMA 2019 TICKET SALES

If you would like to go to the competitions and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, tickets are already on sale and they start at PEN 10. There will be a 50% discount for children under 18, senior citizens and people with an impairment.

At VIDENA and Villa Maria del Triunfo, there will be a “Day Pass” ticket that can be used to watch all the Para sports taking place in the venue for one price.

Tickets can only be bought at the 11 Lima 2019-authorized points of sale around the city. Learn where they are located:

Tickets can also be purchased online at www.lima2019.pe/tickets, where you will also find the Sports Calendar with the detailed competition schedules. E-tickets will no longer need to be printed out; clients will be able to show their e-ticket on their mobile phones at the entrance of the sports venue.

1. Mexican racquetball player Paola Longoria won her third gold in the Pan American Games, winning the singles and doubles events.
2. Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas took her first gold in the Pan American Games, after winning the triple jump event, even setting a new Pan American record.
3. Colombian cyclist Mariana Pajón got her second gold medal in the Pan American Games, after the one she won at Guadalajara 2011.
4. Argentina’s basketball team clearly won the competition and picked up their second gold medal since Mar del Plata 1995. The team led by Luis Scola amazed the audience at the Eduardo Dibós Coliseum.
5. The Argentina’s hockey teams qualified to Tokyo 2020, showing their talent in each match, at the Villa María del Triunfo Sports Center. “Las Leonas” got their seventh gold and “Los Leones”, the tenth. Total Supremacy.
6. Brazilian tennis player Hugo Calderano won two gold medals in singles and doubles. The best player in the history of the Americas shone in Lima 2019 with his best talent.
7. Cuban wrestler Mijaín López reached his fifth consecutive Pan American gold at Lima 2019. The athlete who is also five-time world champion and three-time Olympic champion thanked the warmth of the Peruvian people.
8. Argentinian men’s rugby team stopped the two-time Canadian champion’s supremacy in the Pan American Games. Los Pumas swept all their rivals, in an amazing physical game, in Villa Maria del Triunfo.
9. Cuban Boxing shone again in a continental competition with eight gold medals out of 10 possible finals. Seven world champions and three Olympians confirmed that Cuba leads in this sport.
10. Brazilian swimmer Leonardo de Deus became three-time Pan American champion in the 200 m butterfly event, even though he was not on the Brazilian Olympic Committee’s initial list. He came in to replace a teammate who tested positive in the doping control. In addition, he claimed gold in mixed 4x100 medley relay, silver in 4x100 medley relay and bronze in 200 m backstroke.
11. Venezuelan fencer Ruben Limardo was crowned three-time Pan American champion in épée event. He also won bronze in the team event, having a total of eight medals in the Pan American Games.
12. Argentinian swimmer Delfina Pignatiello was crowned as the queen of the waters at Lima 2019, when she claimed three gold medals in the races of 400, 800 and 1500 meters. At the age of 19, she is the child prodigy in swimming throughout South America.
13. The American swimmer Margo Geer took four gold medals, one individual and four in relay events, becoming one of the most successful participants in Lima 2019.
14. Colombian athlete Anthony Zambrano won two gold medals in the 400m and 4x400m events, standing out as one of the new South American stars in athletics for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
15. Mexican diver Kevin Berlin was crowned as the new Latin American star after winning the 10m platform individual and synchronized events.
16. Cuban judoka Idalys Ortíz picked up her third consecutive gold medal in the +78 kg event. She is one of the most successful athletes in Cuba.
17. American wrestler Kyle Snyder became Pan American champion for the second time in the 97 kg event.  At the age of 23, he is also Olympic champion and two-time world champion.
18. Swimmer Marcela Cunha won gold in open water swimming and closed a wonderful year, after two world gold medals in the 5 and 25 km aquatic marathon. With 10 gold medals, she was crowned as the woman with the most titles in the World Aquatic Sports Championships and entered the Hall of Fame, after winning at Lima 2019.
19. Peruvian karateka Alexandra Grande and water skier Natalia Cuglievan went down in the history of Peruvian sport after winning their second consecutive gold medals in the Pan American Games. This fact will remain in history.

Many images will remain in our memory, since that July 24, when the eighteenth edition of the Pan American Games started in the beach volleyball courts of Costa Verde San Miguel. The 6680 athletes that visited Lima 2019 left us beautiful moments of triumph and defeat that will forever carved in the memory of each person that had the chance of being part of this sport celebration of the Americas.

1. The Games opening ceremony was a reunion with our culture and national identity. The most touching moment was the participation of the tenor Juan Diego Flórez, singing live Chabuca Granda´s songs.
2. The first medal for Peru was awarded on July 27, in taekwondo – Poomsae. The silver medal for Hugo del Castillo and the medal awarded to Marcela Castillo ignited the fans at the Callao Sports Center.
3. The first gold medal for Peru was awarded on that same day. Gladys Tejeda, and Christian Pacheco right after, broke Pan American records in marathon to earn their medals.
4. Peru ended that memorable July 27 with a third gold medal, after the victory of Diego Elías in squash. In just one day, Peruvian athletes matched the best gold medal count on Pan American Games. 
5. British Virgin Islands (Chantel Malone in long jump), Grenada (Anderson Peters in javelin throw), Bolivia (in racquetball in teams), Barbados (Shane Brathwaite in 110 meters hurdles) and Paraguay (Fabrizio Zanotti in golf) won their first gold medals in the history of the Pan American Games. An indelible memory for these nations in Lima 2019. In addition, Aruba won its first medal with the bronze obtained by Mack van den Eerenbeemt in sailing.
6. Andrea Vargas became the first Costa Rican women to win a gold medal in athletics for her country. She defeated two Americans in the 100 meters hurdles event.
7. Natalia Cuglievan and Alexandra Grande won their second consecutive gold medal .in Pan American Games. They are the most prize-winning Peruvian athletes in this kind of continental events.
8. Peruvian surf took three golds in an unprecedented session in Punta Rocas. Benoit Clemente, Daniella Rosas and Luca Mesinas reached the top of the Pan American podium.                                       
9. Romantic moments. The Argentinian gymnast Federico Molinari proposes to her fiancée Paula Cancio during a live interview. In addition, Peruvian athlete Paola Mautino was surprised by her fiancé and coach, after competing in the 4x100 m event, when he approached her, a ring in his hand, to ask her to marry him.
10. Men's karate reached a milestone for Peruvian sport: four medals in four finals. The kata men’s team took the gold. Peru won three bronzes in the men’s and women’s individual kata and in the women’s team event.
11. The moving drop-off from Argentinian judoka Paula Pareto because of an injury. She fought with a back pain in Lima 2019, but she did it as a champion. However, she could not fight for the bronze and lost by walk-over.
12. In the 4x100 freestyle relay, Brazil defeated USA and completely destroyed the Pan American record at the Aquatic Center.
13. The uncontrollable crying of Brazilian Ederson Vilela at the top of the podium, after winning the 10000 m event at the athletics stadium of VIDENA. Vilela confessed that he did not think he could win this event, that his hopes were on the 5000 m event where he placed seventh.
14. Brazil won the 1500 meters swimming event, after 68 years, in Buenos Aires 1951. Guilherme Costa dominated the men’s endurance event.
15. The Brazilian women’s handball team won its fifth consecutive gold in Lima 2019 by defeating Argentina, for the third consecutive time in this kind of event.
16. Eve Jobs, Steve Jobs’ daughter, competed in the equestrian jumping event and won bronze in the individual contest. The Apple's co-founder heir was very happy with how Peru welcomed her.
17. Argentina made the podium in every group sport, except in women’s basketball. The women’s team lost its match against Colombia by W.O. because athletes were not wearing the uniform agreed at the technical meeting the day before.
18. Nathan Adrian, one of the biggest USA swimming stars, won two gold and three silver medals in Lima. The American swimmers praised the Games organization and was amazed by the five cuchimilcos he received in the podium.
19. The Mexican diver Paola Espinosa reached an amazing score in Lima 2019 by winning her fifth medal in Pan American Games, something that will be forever carved in Mexico’s sport history.