The University of Tampa will serve as the processing center for all American
athletes bound for the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic. Processing will include all medical screening, apparel fitting,
luggage checks, passport checks, inoculations and official photos.
Pan Am Games officials will move into a temporary office in Vaughn Center on
July 22, in preparation for the arrival of the athletes and screening volunteers
on July 25. In all, more than 700 athletes will be processed, the largest
delegation in the 2003 Games.
U.S. athletes will compete in archery, athletics, badminton, baseball,
basketball, bowling, boxing, canoeing/kayaking, cycling, diving, equestrian,
fencing, football (soccer), gymnastics (artistic and rhythmic), hockey, judo,
karate, modern pentathlon, racquetball, roller sports, rowing, sailing,
shooting, softball, squash, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis,
taekwondo, team handball, tennis, triathlon, volleyball (indoor and beach),
water polo, water skiing, weightlifting and wrestling.
Officials and visiting athletes will be housed at the Vaughn Center, where
all the processing will take place. Screening personnel will consist largely of
volunteers from the Tampa Bay community.
The American delegation is managed and organized by the United States Olympic
Committee. USOC previously made Tampa its athlete-screening center for the Pan
Am Games in Cuba in 1991, and for the Olympic Summer Games of 1992 in Barcelona,
Spain. The University was the official screening site both years.
More than 40 nations in North and South America, Central America and the
Caribbean participate in the Pan American Games, which have been held every four
years since 1951. The 2003 games will be held August 1-17.
For more
information, contact the Office of Public Information at publicinfo@ut.edu.