U.S. track and field athletes forgo vacation at Pan American Games

Most of the top track and field athletes in the world are taking a much-deserved vacation since September. With the Pan American Games running so late in the sport’s calendar, opportunities came for other competitors who are enjoying their time in Chile as they win some medals to take back home.
Tuesday marked the second day of the program, with two thirds of the National Stadium filled with fans who didn’t seem to know much about the competitors, but were still excited to come with their Halloween costumes and loudly cheer for the locals as the Andes mountains overlooked.
The 27-year-old Kasey Knevelbaard is the unofficial winner of the 5,000-meter race — a Mexican runner is protesting after he finished first and was later disqualified.
Knevelbaard found out he would be racing in Santiago in the middle of September after a very long season.
“It’s challenging, but I don’t want to be someone who’s afraid of not doing anything. You don’t want to miss out on opportunities,” Knevelbaard told The Associated Press.
“I had a conversation with my coach. I said I really wanted to do this. He said we were not going to prepare for it, so I was going to have to do it off our normal training.”
The athlete from California clocked 14 minutes, 47.69 seconds in the cold Santiago weather, almost two minutes longer than the American record set by Grant Fisher last September in Brussels. “A lot of people are in the same boat, like we’re all kind of just testing to see what we can do.