Pan Am and Parapan Am Games

On my travels to Ikea on Sunday, I happen to notice along the highway these blue and orange signs with three letter markings. If you live in Toronto and the greater Toronto area you know these signs are related to the Pan Am and Parapan Am games. Do you know what the Pan Am games are? I didn’t really know much about it, so I looked it up and here’s what I found out. Pan Am stands for Pan American. It is an international multi-sport event that happens every four years since it began in 1951. It is the world’s third largest event based on size and scope and only beaten by the Olympics. 

The games will comprise of 36 Pan Am sports and 15 Parapan Am sports. There will be close to 7,000 athletes competing from all parts of North America, Latin America, South America and the Caribbean. They are too many Pan Am sports to mention but I will point out a few that surprised me such as: fencing, field hockey, handball, water polo and weightlifting. The Parapan Am sports included a game I play with my family while we are camping. I didn’t realize it was an actual sporting event. The game I’m talking about is Boccia. If you’ve never played Bocce ball, as we call it, here’s how it works. You can play it as a team or individually. Each team or person has four colored balls per end.  One person or team member tosses a small white ball called the “jack or pallino” into an open playing area. The person that tossed the jack will now toss one of their colored balls trying to come as close to the jack as possible. The person or team that hasn’t thrown a bocce ball will now attempt to toss their colored ball closer to the jack than the opposing team. Alternating shots between individuals or teams are taken until all the balls have been tossed. The colored ball closes to the jack is awarded 1 point to that team as well any other balls of the same color that are closer than any colored balls of the opposing team. Our games go to 11 points. It is a super fun game that requires skill, precision and patience. If you haven’t played it come out and see what it’s all about! The Pan Am games began on July 10 and end July 26. The Parapan Am games runs August 7 through August 15. Come out and support our Canadian athletes.