CLEVELAND — On the floor of the Huntington Convention Center Thursday a women's volleyball team from Brazil took advantage of the opportunity to get some practice in after their flight ahead of the start of competition Friday in the Pan American Masters Games. They are among the 4,000 athletes from 75 countries that are converging on Cleveland for 10 days of competition in more than two dozen sports.
Marvy Schuman is here from Oregon to compete in barebow archery, which is something she's been interested in since she was a child.
"It was in my bucket list ever since I was a kid, so watching 'The Lone Ranger' and 'Tonto,'" she said. "All of the cowboys and Indians and the Indians riding on horses and shooting."
We caught up with 85-year-old Abdon Ulloa, who may have been walking slowly, but you should see him run.
"I've been running for over 40 years at different distances from 3K, three thousand meters up to marathon," Ulloa said. He's run more than 75 marathons. He flew in Tuesday from Sydney, Australia. "First time in Cleveland, beautiful city. I love it."
And that's why Cleveland bid to host these games five years ago.
"It is so exciting for Cleveland to have all of these folks from all around the world and all around the U.S.," said Rachel Stentz-Baugher, Executive Director of the games. "You know, it really gives us an opportunity to showcase our beautiful city. We know that when people come here, they fall in love, and then they want to come back and tell all of their friends and family to come here. So getting a chance to really show off the city firsthand is obviously very valuable to us.
"It's really exciting because we are able to showcase our city to an international audience and also hopefully gain some awareness from these international sports federations who might want to bring events back to Cleveland," she said.
The Convention Center will be home to a half dozen or so events, including volleyball, table tennis and badminton, with others taking place all over the region that are free and open to the public to watch.
"We've got events as far West as Strongsville, as far East as Mayfield and Beachwood and all the way down South in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and at Kent State University so we're all around Northeast Ohio," said Stentz-Baugher.
A complete list of events, times and locations can be found here.
Tyler George is hoping to check out some curling while he's in town; after all, he's a 2018 Olympic Gold Medalist in the sport. The first American team to ever bring home the gold in curling. He's not competing but he's been hired to talk to the athletes about the drug testing process in international competitions. Yes, no performance-enhancing drugs are allowed.
"It's good to have that information so you know my experience through sport and the Olympics gives me a good opportunity to do that," said George.
The beauty of these games is you don't have to be of Olympic caliber; you don't even have to qualify to compete - just sign up. And while registration is closed for most there's still time to sign up for two sports.
"Triathalon, which happens on Sunday the 14th, is still open for registration. You can register here at our Accreditation Center at the Convention Center and also our 10K and half-marathon are open. Those are next Sunday, the 21st," said Stentz-Baugher.
"We also have a ton of great community events going on this week. So on Saturday night, the 13th is our welcome celebration; it's going to be on Mall C we really would love for all of the community to come out and hang out with us. We'll have a parade of flags, a parade of athletes, food trucks, live music, exhibit booths, yard games. Lots of fun, cool stuff, giveaways things like that so it will be a really fun time," she said.
