WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- They ended with Freddy Krueger winning the final gold medal and athletes dancing the merengue in the rain at the closing ceremony.
The 13th Pan American Games, plagued by seven positive drug tests and nine Cuban defections but highlighted by the enthusiasm of the youthful competitors, concluded Sunday.Krueger, a water skier from Orlando, Fla., -- no, his address is not on Elm Street -- won the men's jumping event, giving the United States its 106th gold and 296th medal.
"It is pretty cool to win the gold medal," Krueger said. "You grow up watching the Olympics; this isn't the Olympics, but it's as close as we get."
It's the hemispheric Olympics, and the United States ended it with the most medals, by far. The final count showed the U.S. team with 296 (106 gold, 110 silver, 80 bronze), followed by Canada with 196 (64-52-80) and Cuba with 156 (69-40-47).
But Sunday's feature event, the men's basketball final, did not add to the gold rush. The U.S. men have not won the Pan Am gold since 1983, and the collection of CBA all-stars sent this year lost to Brazil 95-78 -- its worst loss in men's basketball (see story on D3).
While the United States didn't fare so well in basketball, it won gold in women's softball and soccer, as expected. The world-champion softball team outscored opponents 83-1 and had three no-hitters, two of them perfect games.
The Americans also won in men's water polo to get an Olympic berth. The silver medal behind Cuba for a group of baseball minor leaguers also earned a spot in the 2000 Olympics.
The final day had no defections, but Cuba went home stung by nine members of its delegation leaving. And there were four more positive drug tests, costing two Cuban weightlifters their gold medals.
"The biggest problem in Olympic sports is drugs," Pan American Sports Organization President Mario Vazquez Rana said after announcing that William Vargas, winner in the 136.4-pound weightlifting class, and Rolando Delgado, the 152-pound class winner, tested positive for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone. Baseball players Roberto Vizcarra and Hector Alvarez also tested positive for Nandrolone.
"If we do not win over the drugs, drugs will win over us," he said.
The others who failed drug tests were all gold medalists: Steve Vezina, the goalie on Canada's in-line roller hockey team; and high jumpers Javier Sotomayor of Cuba, the men's indoor and outdoor world record-holder and 1992 Olympic champion, and Juana Rosario Arrendel of the Dominican Republic.
In addition, Mexican baseball player Ray Martinez refused to be tested, which was tantamount to testing positive.
At the closing ceremony, featuring a temporary reuniting of Winnipeg's contribution to rock music, The Guess Who, highlights of the competition played on the large screen at the far end of the stadium while some 2,500 athletes and coaches marched en masse. It was an unruly gaggle who danced and swayed and gyrated to the beat.
Athletes and administrators did the merengue and cha cha in the rain and even organized a wave in the stands while Vazquez Rana attempted to make his speech.
The Guess Who, a 1960s band that long since split, performed "American Woman," "These Eyes," "No Time" and "Undun," as athletes, volunteers and anyone who could get to the field huddled around the stage.
They left to a long ovation, and the Pan Am Games headed to the Dominican Republic for 2003.