The Sho-Air TWENTY20 reports on the Pan American Championships where San Diego’s Jennifer Valente and Chloé Dygert competed earlier this month:
Team USA headed to Lima, Peru last week for the Pan American Games, an event that is held every 4 years one year before the Olympics. The event is formatted like the Olympics and is a perfect opportunity to compete in an Olympic rehearsal.
Two Sho-Air TWENTY20 athletes headed to Peru with USA Cycling, Olympic medalists and World Champions Jennifer Valente and Chloé Dygert. Valente would target the omnium and Dygert the team pursuit and individual time trial, where they were victorious in winning Gold medals.
Lima 2019 Report – By Chloé Dygert
I was so excited to attend the Pan American Games this year. Couldn’t wait to trade pins and be in the athlete village again. The atmosphere is so refreshing, I love being around other athletes that love to win as much as I do. Lima was pretty similar to Rio in the way that safety off the village was crucial. The Peruvian Police and our secret service did a fabulous job watching over us at and getting us to and from our venues. To keep the village safe the only way in was through security check points, just like at the airport.The dining hall in the village is always impressive with how big it is. Several options and styles of food to go for, I definitely wouldn’t say the food was “performance” food. But it was pretty good. I probably ate more bread in the week I was there then I have all year. We had to be careful of eating fruits and veggies that were served washed as we are not allowed to drink the water. Same with brushing teeth, we all used water bottles in hopes to not get sick.This was my first time back on the track in over a year. I was so excited, it was a low pressure race as there are no points involved for qualifying for the Olympics. It just felt so good to go fast again. I really hadn’t felt like my normal self in such a long time and this was exactly what I needed to wake me up.It was great to see my Sho-Air TWENTY20 teammate Jennifer Valente dominate the omnium to take the gold.I’m super happy everything is finally coming together and I can’t wait to continue on this upward trajectory to Tokyo. ~ Chloé
Images by Lima 2019 and USAC
