Sports in Central America – Interesting Facts and Figures!

Road to London 2012!

Athletics
Did you know- Guatemala’s racewalker Julio Urias obtained a bronze medal for placing third in the men’s 50 km walk in the Pan American Games in 1995.

Boxing
Did you know- Without a doubt, Alexis Arguello was one of the world’s most successful professional boxers. Certainly he was the toast of the Latin American sporting community. Between 1974 and 1983, Nicaragua’s former boxer Alexis Arguello won six world championships ( featherweights & lightweights) and became an icon in Latin America. Sports Illustrated published an interview with Arguello in October 1985.

Pan American Games
Did you know- By October, 1975, the Panamanian Olympic Committee sent a national delegation, made up of 19 athletes, to Mexico City to participate in the Pan American Games, the most important pre-Olympic event in the Western Hemisphere since 1951. The team from Panama competed in six sports: aquatics (1), cycling (5), fencing (1), shooting (6), weightlifting (2), and wrestling (4). Two weightlifters, Narciso Oran and Pablo Justiniani, and one wrester, Segundo Olmedo, were the most prominent national athletes in the international games. Ironically Guy Abrahams, the country’s best athlete, did not compete in Mexico. The following year, Abrahams, an Afro-Panamanian sprinter, finished fifth in the men’s 100m, with a time of 10, 25 seconds, at the 1976 Montreal Games.

Host Country
Did you know- Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, hosted the Caribbean Boxing Tournament in 1984. Eight nations competed in the international event: Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and the host country. Puerto Rico and Venezuela did not compete in Managua. The Nicaragua’s boxer Gustavo Herrera won the gold medal in the 54-kilogram category at the 1984 Central American and Caribbean Tournament.

Pan American Games
Did you know- The Nicaraguan Olympic Committee did not participate in three Pan American Games: in 1951 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), in 1959 in Chicago (U.S.), and Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 1963.

Softball
Did you know- The men’s softball team of Guatemala came in 8th place in the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1982.

Swimming
Did you know- Toward the end of the 1990s, Panama’s swimmer Eileen Coparropa -the nation’s best female athlete in that time- captured a silver medal in the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. During the past Games, by 1995, she had finished fifth in the women’s 50m.

Taekwondo
Did you know- Taekwondo, an Olympic sport, is a popular sport in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Track & Field
Did you know- At the 1938 Central American and Caribbean Games, Jennings Blackett (Panama) set a new international record of 10,4 seconds in the men’s 100m, one of the best records in the 1930s.

Volleyball
Did you know-By 1974, Panama won the right to compete in the Men’s Volleyball World Cup in the United Mexican States. This Spanish-speaking nation became the first Central American country to participate in the FIVB World Championships.