Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

hosted the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán, ...

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

, Mexico from October 14 to 30, 2011. Mexico has competed in every edition of the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

since the first games held in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Mexico began their participation having achieved 782 medals in total with 155 of them gold. On August 24, 2011 the head of

CONADE CONADE is Mexico's National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport ( ''Comisión Nacional de Cultura Física y Deporte''). It is the arm of the Mexican government charged with fostering and promoting physical education, recreation, and sport. C ...

Bernardo de la Garza Bernardo de la Garza Herrera (born October 14, 1970 in Mexico City) is a Mexican politician and former candidate for the Partido Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM, "Ecologist Green Party of Mexico") in the 2006 presidential election. He is marr ...

stated that the Mexican athletes would look to break the country's historic record of achieving 23 gold medals in a single Games, which happened at the 1995 Pan American Games in

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...

, Argentina. For that specific objective, the Mexican delegation has landed its hopes on the disciplines of

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velo ...

basque pelota Basque pelota ( Basque: '' pilota'', Spanish: '' pelota vasca'', French: '' pelote basque'') is the name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using one's hand, a racket, a wooden bat or a basket, against a wall (''frontis or fronto ...

, and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

, most specifically in the athletes:

Paola Espinosa Paola Milagros Espinosa Sánchez (born 31 July 1986) is a Mexican diver and represented Mexico at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she was her national team's flagbearer, and the 2012 Summer Ol ...

Paola Longoria Paola Michelle Longoria López (born July 20, 1989) is a Mexican racquetball player. She is the current Women's World Champion in both Singles and Doubles, winning both divisions at the 2022 International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Champ ...

, Alberto Rodríguez,

Eder Sánchez Heraclio Eder Sánchez Terán (born 21 May 1986 in Tlalnepantla de Baz, Estado de México) is a Mexican race walker. He has competed at the World Championships in Athletics five times (2005 to 2011) and represented his country at the 2008 Beij ...

Damián Villa Damian Alejandro Villa Valadez (born August 7, 1990 in Zamora, Michoacán) is a male Mexican taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of ma ...

Yahel Castillo Yahel Ernesto Castillo Huerta (born June 6 1987) is a Mexican diver.* References External links * 1987 births Living people Mexican male divers Divers at the 2007 Pan American Games Divers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Divers at the ...

, and

Juan René Serrano Juan René Serrano Gutiérrez (born 23 February 1984 in Guadalajara, Jalisco) is an athlete from Mexico. He competes in archery. Serrano competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in men's individual archery. He won his first match, ad ...

(flagbearer), who are the strongest possibilities of winning a gold medal in their respective disciplines. The Mexican Olympic Committee (COM) announced that the Mexican delegation would be made by 646 athletes, 279 of them women and 367 men, who will participate in all 36 sports. On September 20, 2011 the COM announced that the Mexican archer Juan René Serrano would be the flagbearer. On a protocolary ceremony held on September 23, 2011 the Mexican president

Felipe Calderón Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (; born 18 August 1962) is a Mexican politician who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 1 December 2006 to 30 November 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 ...

made the official handing of the national flag to the archer, encouraging both pan American and parapan American athletes to give their best effort at the games.Abanderamiento JP (Flag ceremony)

Medalists

References

{{NOCin2011PanAmericanGames

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Nations at the 2011 Pan American Games P