Pan Am Games boost U.S. Olympic team

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – American shooters, water polo players and synchronized swimmers helped their country earn 12 Olympic berths during the Pan American Games that ended Sunday.

In all, the United States has qualified athletes in 10 sports for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

At Rio, shooters picked up three spots in the final opportunity to earn Olympic quota slots. Sandra Uptagrafft (Beverly Hills, Calif.) secured the women’s 25-meter pistol berth with her gold medal. Jason Turner (Rush, N.Y.) also grabbed an individual spot by finishing atop the men’s 50-meter pistol competition. Michael McPhail (Darlington, Wis.) got a Beijing spot for his nation in the men’s 50-meter prone rifle with a silver medal. Tom Tamas (Pittsview, Ala.) won the event but had already earned his place at the Olympics during a World Cup competition.

In triathlon, Andy Potts (Princeton, N.J.) and Julie Ertle (Placentia, Calif.) won team spots for the sport with gold medal performances in Rio.

Two modern pentathletes grabbed Beijing spots: Eli Bremmer (Monument, Colo.) qualified by winning the men’s competition, Mickey Kelly (Chatham, N.Y.) qualified with a bronze medal and finishing as one of the top two North Americans.

The world champion women’s water polo team clinched a berth for Beijing when it earned gold at the Pan Ams. Then the U.S. men’s team also claimed a spot in the Olympic field with a win.

Synchronized swimming qualified both the duet and the eight-person team for Beijing. The duet will feature Christina Jones (Missoula, Mont.) and Andrea Nott (San Jose, Calif.)

Jun Gao (Gaithersburg, Md.) won the women’s singles in table tennis and qualified for a spot at the Olympics in the nation of her birth. The 2008 Olympics will be Gaos fourth and third for the United States. Gao won a silver medal in women’s doubles for China in the 1992 Barcelona Games. She received her U.S. citizenship in 1997 and represented the U.S. in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.