Six athletes with ties to York University will be wearing a different shade of red and white during the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
From left: Lions alumnae Khamica Bingham and Brittany Crew will compete for Canada in track and field, while Pierce LePage and Asia Hogan-Rochester, both of whom completed their first seasons with the Lions last year, will compete in track and field and rugby sevens competitions respectively
Lions alumnae Khamica Bingham and Brittany Crew will compete for Canada in track and field, while Pierce LePage and Asia Hogan-Rochester, both of whom completed their first seasons with the Lions last year, will compete in track and field and rugby sevens competitions respectively. Also attending the games are recent graduate Haya Jumaa, who will compete in karate, and current student Jason Ho-Shue, who will compete in badminton.
The Pan Am Games began Friday, July 26 and will run until Sunday, Aug. 11.
Bingham competed for the Lions for two seasons,from 2013 to 2015, and became a dominant force at the post-secondary level. She captured five individual gold medals and one team bronze medal at the national championships during her career, in addition to four gold medals at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championships. She was also named the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championship’s most outstanding performer in 2014 and won York's Female Athlete of the Year for 2013-14. Now a seasoned international competitor, Bingham is competing in her second Pan Am Games after placing sixth in the 100 metre and winning a bronze medal in the 4x100-metre relay in 2015. She also competed for Canada at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and will compete for Canada this time around in the 4x100-metre relay.
Crew, one of the Lions' most decorated track and field athletes of all time, will compete in her first Pan Am Games in the women's shot put. Like Bingham, Crew is now an experienced international competitor and was a teammate of Bingham's on the 2016 Olympic team. After spending two years competing internationally, Crew returned last year for one final season with the Lions and won her third York Female Athlete of the Year award thanks to an outstanding 2018-19 season. In four seasons with the Lions, Crew racked up six U SPORTS gold medals and one silver medal as well as seven OUA championship gold medals in the shot put and weight throw events combined. She comes into the Pan Am Games ranked 11th in the world in shot put.
LePage will compete in the men's decathlon following an incredible first season with the Lions. The multitalented athlete burst onto the international stage last summer when he won a silver medal in decathlon at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and followed that up with a dominant indoor season at York. He won two gold medals at the U SPORTS championships in the 60-metre hurdles and long jump events, a silver medal in the men's 4x200-metre relay and a bronze medal in the men's high jump. He also dominated the competition at the OUA championships, winning three gold medals in the 60-metre hurdles, high jump and long jump. LePage was named the U SPORTS field athlete of the year and male athlete of the meet at the U SPORTS championships and also received the Hec Phillips award as the most outstanding performer at the OUA championships.
Hogan-Rochester made her Multi-Sport Games debut just a few weeks ago when she competed for Canada with the women's rugby sevens team at the 2019 FISU Games. A dual-sport athlete who also suited up for the Lions track and field team last year, Hogan-Rochester started all seven games for the rugby team and used her speed to score one try in the regular season and three more in the Lions' 36-24 playoff win over the Trent Excalibur. She also scored a try for Canada in their 14-12 victory over Italy at the FISU Games.
Approximately 6,700 athletes will represent the 41 competing countries from North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean in 424 events at the 2019 Pan Am Games. The Pan Am Games were last hosted in 2015 in Toronto, with the track and field events being hosted on York University's Keele Campus in the then brand-new CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Athletics Stadium (now the York Lions Stadium). Canada ranked second overall in total medals behind the U.S. in 2015, earning 78 gold medals, 70 silver and 71 bronze for a total of 219.
For the competition schedule and more information on the 2019 Pan Am Games team, visit the Canadian Olympic Committee website.