More than 10,000 athletes and as many as 250,000 visitors are expected to converge in Toronto in 2015 for the Pan Am Games. The city beat bids from Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Colombia, to host. "The Games presents us with a tremendous opportunity to make the kinds of investment in social and sports infrastructure that will benefit Toronto for decades to come," Mayor David Miller said in a statement following Friday's announcement by the Pan American Sports Organization in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The $2.4 billion budget for the games calls for six new athletic venues in Toronto and the surrounding region and an athletes' village in the West Donlands, which will be turned into affordable housing. New venues include a stadium for athletics and an indoor velodrome (to be built in Hamilton) and a sports training facility at the University of Toronto's Scarborough Campus. An aquatics centre and two additional 50-metre pools will also be built.
The two-week games, which include all summer Olympic sports, are held every four years for athletes in the 42 member nations. The games will take place from July 10 to 26 and the Parapan American Games will be held from August 7 through 14. The last edition of the games took place in Rio de Janeiro in July 2007 and the next event occurs in Guadalajara in October 2011.
