This CBS Sports coverage of the 1979 Pan American Games from San Juan, Puerto Rico featured the more than capable broadcast crew of Dick Stockton at the sports desk…the beautiful Jayne Kennedy covering wrestling and sailing….Tim Ryan and Gil Clancy covering boxing….and Jack Whitaker providing commentary and closing statements…as this 8th edition of the Pan American Games were held from July 1 to July 15, 1979. The United States team would dominate this event winning a total of 266 medals….with 126 being gold…95 being silver and 45 being bronze….as Cuba came in 2nd with 145 total medals….while Canada came in 3rd with 138 total medals.
Thess 1979 Pan American Games were the precursor to the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympic Games…. which none of these 296 medal winning athletes from the USA ever got to participate in because US President Jimmy Carter elected to bring politics into sport and the Olympic Games by choosing to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics….whereby a 1980 documentary film titled A Step Away showcased a number of our athletes competing in these Pan Am Games….while being robbed of their Olympic dreams ….which started this lil ole chiweenie Sportsphile on a lifelong quest to substantiate that the WORST TICS ARE POLI-TICS….cuz I don’t believe politics should ever enter the arenas and fields of sport..
