Toronto's Fay De Fazio Ebert, 13, wins skateboarding gold at Pan Am Games
Canada's Mac Neil, Harvey top swim podium; Park, Ware also capture gold in Santiago
Toronto teen Fay De Fazio Ebert will leave the Pan American Games as the youngest gold medallist on this year's Canadian team.
The 13-year-old won the women's park competition on Sunday, scoring a best of 84.66 points on the second of her three runs in Santiago, Chile.
Raicca Ventura of Brazil took silver with 82.54 points and American Bryce Wettstein earned bronze (79.95) in the new Urban Sports Esplanade of the National Stadium.
Ebert captured the fifth gold of these Games for Canada, which won four on Saturday. It also has two silver and three bronze.
"I can't explain how good I'm feeling right now," Ebert told CBC Sports. "I'm so glad my mom's here. She supports me."
Ebert, who usually practises four hours a day, six days a week, competed with a feather in her helmet from her pet duck, Richard, as she does for each competition.
WATCH | Ebert earns Canada's 5th gold medal in Santiago:
Ebert isn't uncomfortable skating against older competitors, saying it's more about the friendship between the athletes.
"Back home I skate with 20-, 30-year-olds, maybe as old as 50, this one guy. He's so good, too."
Elisabeth De Fazio could see the confidence in her daughter during Sunday's event.
"I'm proud of her, she worked so hard this week," Elisabeth said. "I saw her making the [medal] podium but wasn't sure where. This kind of pressure is a lot for anybody."
Fay has always embraced the pressure of competition, she told CBC Sports this past April, whether competing in local events or against the best in the world.
"I like the pressure of having to do something in that moment," Ebert said. "It's a good feeling doing a great kick-flip or getting big air. I have never felt that I have to do competitions or train, I chose to because it excites me."
WATCH | Highlights of Sunday's morning action from Chile:
Poised to make Olympic debut
At 8, Ebert was introduced to skateboarding and quickly became competitive on the national scene. She narrowly missed representing Canada at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, where the sport made its Summer Games debut.
Nine months from the Paris Olympics, Ebert is in prime position to represent Canada on the world's biggest sporting stage.
"I didn't realize it would get to this point, it's kind of crazy," she told from a Canada Skateboard training camp in California last spring. "When I was little, I thought maybe I could make it with running but never with skateboarding."
WATCH | Ebert joins CBC Sports to discuss Paris 2024 quest:
Meanwhile, swimmer Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont., was dominant in the women's 100-metre butterfly, posting a Games record time of 56.94 seconds to beat the American duo of Kelly Pash (57.85) and Olivia Bray (58.36). Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que., was fifth (59.40) in the field of eight.
"It's one of the only titles I didn't have yet so I really felt the pressure on myself to get it but I'm really happy with that," Mac Neil told Swimming Canada. "I haven't been under 57 [seconds] this year so I just want to improve from there. I'm glad I could do that."
On Saturday, Mac Neil and Savard helped Canada to victory in the women's 4x100 freestyle relay, with the former moving the team from third to a winning time of 3:37.75 to beat the United States by 0.67 seconds.
Last weekend, Mac Neil placed fourth in the butterfly at a World Cup stop in Athens. From there, she travelled to Chile, where she is also planning to compete in the 50- and 100 freestyle and likely three other relays.
WATCH | Mac Neil sets Pan Am record in 100-metre butterfly final:
Mary-Sophie Harvey of Trois-Rivières, Que., another member of Saturday's freestyle relay squad, prevailed in the women's 200 free a day later, touching the wall in 1:58.08.
Maria Costa da Silva of Brazil was 4-100ths of a second behind, followed by Camille Spink of the United States (1:58.61).
"My heart rate was probably like a 200 because in the ready room my suit ripped," Harvey said. "So I had to run and put this new suit on like less than five minutes before. On my first 50 I didn't really feel anything, my heartbeat was just going off, but it was good."
Harvey made her Pam Am debut four years ago in Lima and finished fourth in the 4x200 free relay.
WATCH | Harvey tops field in tightly contested 200-metre freestyle final:
Mac Neil and Harvey also combined with Javier Acevedo of Toronto and Finlay Knox of Okotoks, Alta., to take bronze in the mixed 4x100 free relay with a time of 3:25.23.
Brazil claimed gold with a Pan Am record time of 3:23.78, 0.43 seconds ahead of the silver medallist American team.
Park wins taekwondo gold
Canada's fourth gold of the day, matching Saturday's output, and 17th medal overall went to taekwondo athlete Skylar Park in women's 57 kg Kyorugi, or sparring.
The 24-year-old from Winnipeg beat Maria Clara Pacheco of Brazil 2-1 at the Contact Sports Center after defeating Sarah Cox of the U.S. (2-0) and Panama's Carolena Carstens (2-1) in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Park, who collected Pan Am silver in Lima, earned big points Sunday to directly qualify for the Paris Olympics at the end of December.
"Winning Pan Am Games and a gold medal for Canada is important for me and always an honour," she told CBC Sports a week ago.
Park boasts three consecutive victories, having prepared for Pan Ams by winning at the Taiyuan World Taekwondo Grand Prix in China and Pan American President's Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
WATCH | Taekwondo runs in Park family's blood:
She was also favoured to medal in her 2021 Olympic debut in Tokyo but bowed out in the quarterfinals.
"After Tokyo, a lot of it for me was mental. Dealing with that pressure and expectations, having that belief [to succeed]. It's come together, and the confidence and belief is there now," said Park, whose brothers Tae-Ku and Braven are also competing in taekwondo at Pan Ams. Tae-Ku was awarded bronze Sunday in men's Kyorugi 68 kg.
"A big thing is enjoying myself in the ring. When there's pressure, expectations and noise outside of what you're doing, it can, at times, become not fun. But the reason I was successful from a young age and why I love the sport is because I love to do it."
Ware, Vallée top women's diving podium
Canada earned its 20th and 21st medals of the Games in the pool during the evening session, with Pamela Ware taking the women's 1m springboard event, and teammate Mia Vallée capturing silver.
Ware of Greenfield Park, Que., earned the best score of all 12 competitors in the final in both the fourth and fifth rounds to finish with 280.25 points, 18.5 clear of American bronze medallist Hailey Hernandez.
The gold marks the fourth medal for the 30-year-old at the Pan American Games after winning gold in Lima in the 3m synchro competition, and a pair of silver medals in Toronto in 2015 in the 3m synchro and 3m springboard events.
The Kirkland, Que., native Vallée was dominant to begin the event, securing the highest score on her first three dives of the night, before opening the door for Ware with a poor fourth dive, earning just 35.65 points.
The 22-year-old rebounded on her final dive with the second-best score of the round to vault into silver-medal position with 272.30 points.
Charron adds to Games hardware
Maude Charron, a two-time defending Commonweath Games champion, reigning Olympic gold medallist and two-time world medallist is now a Pan Am silver medallist in women's weightlifting.
The Rimouski, Que., athlete combined to lift 226 kilograms in the snatch and clean and jerk in the 59 kg class
Colombia's Yenny Alvarez set a Games record of 102 kg and 126 kg in the respective events for the victory. She tried to surpass her Americas mark of 234 kg from Dec. 7, 2022 but failed cleaning 134 kg.
Janeth Gomez of Mexico collected bronze (222).
Charron, 30, moved to the 59 kg division for the first time in a multi-sport Games after the 64 kg bracket was removed from the Olympic programme for Paris.
WATCH | Why Paris will be Charron's 'dream' Olympics:
She captured gold in the new weight class at the Pan American Championships earlier this year in Bariloche, Argentina, but skipped worlds in September after suffering a knee injury in June.
The former gymnast entered her first weightlifting competition in September 2015 and fewer than six years later became only the second Canadian weightlifting to win Olympic gold.
Other Canadian medals
- Molly Simpson of Red Deer, Alta., won silver in the women's BMX racing final with a time of 36 seconds, finishing just 1.6 behind gold medallist Mariana Pajón Londoño of Colombia, a two-time Olympic gold medallist.
- Canada's Olympic-bound women's artistic gymnastics team comprised of Aurelie Tran, Ava Stewart, Cassandra Lee, Frederique Sgarbossa and Sydney Turner, won bronze in the team event with 154.230 points. The United States won gold (165.196) , while Brazil secured silver (161.564).
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