ANNOUNCEMENTS. ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT. KHATUNA Lorig
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THE UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT. Khatuna LORIG, ARCHERY Khatuna Lorig is one of the world’s most decorated and accomplished female archers. Born and raised in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, Khatuna took up archery in sixth grade. She found success very quickly and began competing at an elite level. At the age of 18, Lorig competed in her first Olympic Games for the Unified Team in the 1992 Barcelona Games where she won a bronze medal in the team competition. Khatuna continued to improve and competed in the 1996 Atlanta Games and 2000 Sydney Games as a member of the Republic of Georgia’s team. Lorig became a United States citizen in 2005, which allowed her to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as a member of Team USA. She also served as the flag bearer in the Closing Ceremony. In her fifth Olympic Games, Lorig finished in fourth place, just shy of the podium at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Lorig has a total of eight podium finishes so far in 2015 alone, and with more likely to come. She started the year off by winning bronze at the Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 4. Her first gold medal of the year came from the Arizona Cup where she also earned a bronze medal in the women’s recurve team division. She followed that tournament with another gold medal at the Easton Foundations Gator Cup. Lorig won bronze at the World Cup Stage 1 as a member of the women’s recurve team. On her home field at the CVOTC, Lorig earned a silver medal in the SoCal Showdown. At the Outdoor National Target Championships, Khatuna won her third gold medal of 2015. At the 2015 Pan American Games, Lorig added to her gold medal count and found herself once again at the top of the podium in the individual women’s competition. In the team competition, Lorig, alongside with fellow CVOTC resident athletes Ariel Gibilaro and LaNola Pritchard, won the bronze medal. This marks her third Pan American Games. She earned a bronze medal in the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro as a member of the women’s recurve team. The women’s team improved upon their 2007 finish and won the silver medal at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara where Lorig also won an individual bronze medal. Lorig has always has a passion for coaching and had an opportunity to put her skills to use in a big way. Hollywood called upon Khatuna in 2012 to coach actress Jennifer Lawrence for her starring role in the Hunger Games. Her character is a master with a bow and arrow, which can be credited to Lorig. Also in 2012, Khatuna found herself on Glamour Magazine’s “7 Female 2012 Summer Olympians Who Blow Our Minds” list. Another Hollywood moment presented itself in 2013 when Lorig was a part of E! Entertainment’s “Pre-OSCAR Countdown LIVE, Archery meets Academy Awards.” She was also featured in ESPN The Magazine’s 2015 Body Issue. At this year’s 2015 World Archery Championships, Lorig’s stellar shooting qualified one quota spot for a female American at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. There will be one last opportunity for the entire women’s team to qualify at a tournament to be held next year. With the 2016 Olympic Games right around the corner, Khatuna is hard at work to prepare for and secure a spot in what would be her sixth Olympic Games. ANNOUNCEMENTS. TEAM USA SHOP DISCOUNTS Resident athletes receive a 20% discount on merchandise at the Team USA Shop in the Visitor Center at the CVOTC. Stop by to pick up some great Team USA gear! AUGUST 2015 1 OLYMPIC VOICE COMPETITION. PAN AM & PARapan AM GAMES More than 6,000 athletes from across Latin America, South America, the Caribbean and North America competed in 36 sports over a 16 day period for the 2015 Pan American Games, hosted in Toronto, Canada, from July 10-26. The Pan American Games began with an Opening Ceremony, produced by Canada-based theater company Cirque du Soleil. Countries entered the stadium in alphabetical order (as determined by the Spanish language) with Argentina entering first to honor the first Pan American Games held in Buenos Aires and Canada walking last to represent being the host country. On the BMX track, Connor Fields logged the fastest Time Trial lap in qualifications and Nic Long finished just outside of the top ten, but both went on to the Time Trial Superfinal. In the women’s qualification runs, Alise Post finished with the second-fastest lap and Felicia Stancil with the fourth- fastest. In the Time Trial Superfinal, Stancil finished in third and Post in sixth. When it came down to the men’s three quarterfinal runs, Fields took the top spot in each run for Heat 3 and nailed the fastest time in his semifinal run. Nic Long raced consistently to join Fields in the final, which got off to a crazy start with a crash that took top-ranked Fields off the course. Nic Long went on to win bronze with a time of 37.046 seconds. With only 16 women continuing on to the semifinals, there were two heats of eight women completing three runs to qualify for the final. Post and Stancil landed in the same heat with Post finishing the motos in second, second and first while Stancil finished in first, third and second. When it came time for the women’s final, Felicia Stancil crushed the competition. After breaking away from a massive crash at the first turn, Stancil claimed her first international senior-level win and the first 2015 Pan American Games gold medal for Team USA. Teammate Alise Post got caught in the pile up and fought back to take sixth place. Both the Men’s and Women’s Rugby teams were off to an impressive start on day one of competition ending the day undefeated with a combined six wins. The women started day two with a dominating 71-0 win over Mexico, but then fell in a close one to Canada. Despite that loss, the women still earned a spot in the gold medal match where they would face Canada once again. While it was a hard fought battle, the women’s team took silver. The men started day two on a high note defeating Guyana 71-0 to advance to the semifinals where they would face Canada. With the clock quickly winding down and the Canadian home crowd’s encouragement, Canada scored with just a few seconds left, defeating the U.S. 26-19. The men rallied back to win bronze in a 40-12 victory over Uruguay. Both the men’s and women’s teams have already qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games and plan to carry this momentum with them while Photo credits: Getty Images they continue to prepare. In the Archery competition, the men’s and women’s teams both seeded very well in the qualification rounds. Five-time Olympian Khatuna Lorig led the American women in third, followed by Ariel Gibilaro in sixth and LaNola Pritchard in 11th. While all three won their round of 32 matches, teammates Pritchard and Gibilaro went head to head in the round of 16 with Pritchard outshooting Gibilaro 7-1. Lorig defeated Canadian Kateri Vrakking which advanced her to the quarterfinals where she battled teammate LaNola Pritchard. Lorig came out on top 7-3 and ultimately earned gold in the women’s individual division. Fellow Olympian Brady Ellison earned silver in the men’s individual competition adding to the medal count. In the team event, both the men’s and women’s teams found success. With a bye in the quarterfinals, Brady Ellison, Collin Klimitcheck and Zach Garret faced Brazil in their semifinal team match. After a dominating 6-0 win over Brazil, the men advanced to the final where they faced Mexico. Following a couple of close rounds, the men’s team ultimately won the silver medal, falling to Mexico 6-2. In the women’s team event, Khatuna Lorig, Ariel Gibilaro and LaNola Pritchard went head-to-head against Cuba in the quarterfinals and came away with the 5-3 victory. They went on to face a strong Colombian team and fell by a score of 6-2. The women fought back in the bronze medal match, beating Venezuela 5-4. AUGUST 2015 2 OLYMPIC VOICE COMPETITION. PAN AM & PARapan AM - CONTINUED The U.S. Men’s Field Hockey team competed against Cuba in their first game ending in a 3-3 tie with goals from Will Holt, Moritz Runzi and Aki Kaeppeler. In their match against Argentina, the men faced a tough team, ultimately losing 6-0. In their final game of pool play, the USA Field Hockey Men’s National Team defeated Trinidad and Tobago by a score of 2-1 with goals coming early in the game from Alex Grassi and Will Holt. Ranked second in their pool, Team USA faced Brazil in the quarterfinals. The score was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation play with a goal coming from Tyler Sundeen in the 57th minute. Unfortunately, the penalty shootout fell in Brazil’s favor with three goals from Brazilian team members and only one USA goal from Christian Linney making it past the goalkeeper. In the 5th-8th place consolation round, Team USA fought back in a rematch against Trinidad and Tobago winning 2-1 with goals coming from Will Holt and Tyler Sundeen.