TORONTO — The Games started with a glitch for the opening ceremonies and closed with another in the official Closing ceremony, But in between, Pan-Am Games hosts Canada won 217 trips to the podium with 78 Gold, 69 Silver and 70 Bronze medals.
Misdirection during the torch run inside the Rogers stadium left torch runners lost within a maze of athletes not knowing where the next runner was to hand off the flame in a sea of athletes already in their positions following the team entries.
Then, during the closing ceremonies, headliner Kanye West was displeased with a microphone glitch, and after 13 minutes on stage, threw his misbehaving mic high in the air and stormed off the stage not to return.
Tickets were slow to begin with but momentum built after the games began, selling more than a million, and a half tickets in all.
In Women’s Softball, over the past seven Can-Am Games team USA has been the Gold Medal Winners and were expecting to celebrate their eight heading into their final game matchup against Team Canada.
Canada went through the preliminaries beating Brazil 6-0, Cuba 5-0,Puerto Rico 1-0, The only losses throughout the games were both to the Americans whom they eventually met in the final game.
Canada lost to USA 5-2 in the semi-finals but defeated Peurto Rica 7-4 to win a shot at the gold. But they would have to beat the perennial champion Team USA to do it.
The tension was palpable as both teams made several great defensive plays to keep the score 0-0 until the eighth inning where all the scoring was done.
Canadian pitcher Sara Groenewegen went the distance on the Canadian mound while Team USA went through three pitchers in the 4-2 Canadian win.
The ladies matched the Canadian Men’s Softball Gold who downed Venezuela 2-1 in the final game. But on the men’s side, Canada has won the gold at every Pan-Am Games where Men’s Softball has been included as a medal sport — 1979, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003 and now 2015.
