Before summer Olympics..
GUADALAJARA, Mexico - Guadalajara welcome you with open arms to the American sports figures who shine in the XVI Pan American Games which were inaugurated in the Mexican birthplace of mariachi and tequila.
After years of preparation and still rush to the finish of some facilities and a safety shield than 11,000 items, now is the time of the sport, track and field, swimming pool and cycling.
Argentina women's team of hockey, world champions, Brazilian beach volleyball, baseball, Cuban, Mexican diver Paola Espinosa, form part of a select group of large figures that adorn the Pan American Games.
Neither rain the day before, caused by Hurricane "Jova" by the Pacific coast, have stopped at the last minute preparations that sealed the endorsement of the track, a facility that receives its final coats of paint to a opening day.
The opening scene is Omnilife Stadium football team Chivas de Guadalajara, open less than a year and considered one of the great stages of this fair city for the mainland.
The Mexican city will receive a total of 5996 athletes , a figure that nearly triples the amount of athletes that were presented at the first Pan American Games, held 60 years ago in Argentina 1951.
Mexico will also become the first country in the Pan American organized on three occasions, after the editions of 1955 and 1975, both in the Mexican capital.
A program of 36 sports, with 28, including the Olympic charter, consolidated at the Pan American Games Guadalajara as the second largest sporting event in the world, second only to the Olympics.
Extend the importance that the Pan American Games 15 sports contested seats will London 2012 an attractive magnet for players seeking once and for all anticipated his move to London.
Guadalajara has been built for the occasion a Pan American Village for 8,000 passengers, more than 2,000 athletes technicians and managers, which is then converted into a new development bordering the municipality of Zapopan, where the stadium is also Omnilife.
The cities of Puerto Vallarta, Ciudad Guzman, Lagos de Moreno and Tatalpa will accompany Pan-American Guadalajara as subsites.
Receive Vallarta sailing, beach volleyball and swimming in open waters Lagos de Moreno baseball, mountain biking Tatalpa and Ciudad Guzman rowing and canoeing.
After months of fruitless negotiations to have a laboratory supported by the World Anti-Doping Agency, Mexico established an agreement with Barcelona (Spain) to carry out a program of about 1,500 checks to be performed by doctors at the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) .
Security, one of the main problems facing Mexico has been a priority of the authorities to have a safe play with no problems.
A total of 11,000 members of police and army have taken over security in Guadalajara with a deployment of 650 surveillance cameras and an operating center focus knob for the Games.
The city has also prepared a vial operating through special allocation of 200 kilometers of lanes will give priority to carrying the Games for athletes to arrive in time.
Outside the Olympic venues, Guadalajara has created a cultural program with exhibitions in the streets and theaters and a program for the 800,000 visitors who come during the Games.
Guadalajara, 500 miles west of Mexico City is recognized as the cradle of Mexican Mariachi, with its sounds and trumpets, and the tequila, a drink with designation of origin, that occurs on state lands Jalisco, the headquarters of the Pan is the capital.
Source: Univison (translated by Google Translator)
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Will be available to watch on a selection of Latin American Spanish tv networks while for Americans on ESPN, for Europeans check your local listings.
