STRANGE DAYS
A look at five of the lighter moments from the Pan Am Games
Grant Campbell, one of the 25 people to attend the first competition at the Pan American Games, described himself as a “grassroots sports guy,” and general supporter. He was by the water polo venue with his daughter. It was a Tuesday morning and, for the most part, discussion around the Games was based on one central question: Why? “They’re going to waste the money anyway,” Campbell said with a smile. “I’d rather them waste it on this.” Along that vein, here are some of the lighter moments from the 2015 Games:
A SOLID TRY
On July 8, Toronto police pulled a man over. He was driving on the highway, in one of the lanes reserved for highoccupancy vehicles — three or more people. That was not the newsworthy part. It had to do with his two passengers. One of them was wearing a Montreal Expos baseball cap, but neither of them had a pulse. They were both mannequins. From the Toronto police news release: “As the vehicle drove past the marked police car, the officer noticed that the frontseat passenger did not appear to be lifelike.” The good news: “On a positive note, everyone in the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt.”
A BURNING QUESTION
Organizers host a news conference every morning during the Games, a ritual that, after a few days, can become tedious. And then, one day, it rained. Saad Rafi, chief executive of the Toronto host committee, was asked how the Pan Am flame — burning in a cauldron near the CN Tower — would stay alight in the deluge. “Well, it’s a gas feed, so, um, it’s our job to keep it going,” Rafi said. “So there’s a constant feed of gas that keeps the flame lit.” The reporter asked a followup question: “So, it’s just going to keep going for the entire day?” Rafi, bordering on exasperation, responded: “It’d better, if it doesn’t, you’ll ask a whole bunch of different questions.”
A LOT OF FRIENDS
Artistic roller-skating is a full medal sport at the Pan Am Games. Skaters speak the same language as their icebound colleagues, but with a different dialect. They are also used to competing in smaller venues, with smaller crowds. For two days during the Games, they skated — a short program, then a long program — in front of sold-out crowds inside the Direct Energy Centre, at Exhibition Place. The temporary bleachers held 2,000. “When I saw how full the crowd was,” said Canadian skater Kailah Macri, “I was like, ‘I don’t have that many friends.”
A CONFUSED MAYOR
Kanye West was announced as the marquee performer for the Closing Ceremony. West is from Chicago. “I won’ t say that I spend every single night at home listening to his music,” Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters after the announcement. “But you know what, I’m smart enough to know that a lot of people do and I’m smart enough to know that he’s a proud product of our music industry here, as are a number of others.” Wait, what? Tory was asked again later in the day, having been informed of his error: “You can’t know everything.”
A GENTLE REQUEST
Nine Brazilian cyclists set out for a training ride on the first Sunday of the Games, with a plan to find a stretch of open road. They found one near the athletes’ village. The problem was their chosen road was the Don Valley Parkway. Police spotted the group and, after working through the language barrier, gently let the riders know they were not allowed to cycle on the highway. No charges were laid. Toronto Police Det. Sgt. Devin Kealey told The Toronto Star: “You’ll be happy to know they were not using the HOV lanes.”