The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a continental multi-sport event held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to July 29, 2007.[1] At the Games, 5,633 athletes selected from 42 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in 332 events in 34 sports divided into 47 disciplines.[1][2][3] According to the Rio de Janeiro Organizing Committee for the Pan American Games, 2,196 medals were awarded for every winning athlete, including individuals from teams, during 334 awards ceremonies.[2][4]
For the first time since the 1955 Games, American athletes did not win more than 100 gold medals.[7] The United States led the medal count for the 12th time, winning 97 gold medals.[5][7] It also won the silver medal count, with 88, and the total medals count, with 237.[5][7] Competitors from the host nation, Brazil, led the bronze medal count for the first time, with 65.[5][7] Brazil won 52 gold medals, 40 silver medals and a total of 157 medals, its best ever overall performance and best placement in the medal table since the 1967 Games.[5][8]
The ranking in this table is based on the official medal standings approved by the executive committee of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) on December 18, 2007.[5] By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals won by the athletes representing a nation. (In this context, a nation is an entity represented by a NOC). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.[5] If nations are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by IOC country code.[5]
In boxing, judo, taekwondo and wrestling, two bronze medals were awarded in each weight class. In baseball, atypical rainfall during the games forced the Rio de Janeiro Organizing Committee for the Pan American Games to rearrange the schedule, and the competition for the bronze medal never took place.[9]Mexico had to leave on the previously assigned date without playing for the third position.[9] Therefore, the technical delegate ruled that Mexico and Nicaragua were each to be awarded a bronze medal.[9]
The event closed on July 29 without a positive test for illegal drugs.[10] During the closing ceremony of the Games, the Rio de Janeiro Organizing Committee called them the "cleanest [Games] yet".[10]Mario Vazquez Raña, president of PASO, stated at the closing ceremony that the games had been the cleanest in Pan American history.[10] However, shortly after the games ended, prohibited substances were detected in 4 of 1,262 tests.[5][11] Following procedures recommended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the PASO Medical Commission conducted an extensive review and submitted a report to the PASO Executive Committee.[5][12] On December 18, 2007, the executive committee unanimously approved it, stripping the medals from four athletes and ordering an adjustment of the medal table.[5]
Brazilian weightlifter Fabrício Mafra lost his bronze medal in the men's 105 kg competition.[14] He tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone, and Damian Abbiate, the competitor from Argentina, received the medal in his place.[14] Colombian cyclist Libardo Niño Corridor, who won a silver medal in the men's individual road time trial, tested positive for the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO), and consequently the silver medal went to Matias Medici of Argentina and the bronze medal to Dominique Rollin of Canada.[14] Nicaraguan baseball player Pedro Wilder Rayo Rojas tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid boldenone, and lost his bronze medal from the men's baseball competition, but his teammates kept their medals.[14]
