US Squash celebrates International Olympic & Paralympic Day, June 23, with the announcement of the 2023 Pan American Games Squad as Team USA aims to top the medal table for a third consecutive Games.
The 2023 Olympic & Paralympic Day theme is “Let’s Move”, and Team USA Squash will aim to move to the top of the podium in Santiago, Chile, October 20-November 5. The Quadrennial Pan American Games have been the highest level of international squash for squash professionals in the Americas and the Caribbean since its inclusion in 1995.
Forty-one nations will compete across thirty-nine sports in the first-time host nation’s capital. The squash competition will feature eight nations—seven of which recently qualified in the Pan American Championships in Colombia, and host nation Chile—with seven gold medals on offer in the men’s and women’s team, doubles and individual competitions.
World No. 5 Amanda Sobhy, world No. 9 Olivia Fiechter and world No. 14 Olivia Blatchford Clyne will lead Team USA’s pursuit of a third straight women’s team gold medal, while world No. 38 Shahjahan Khan, world No. 44 Todd Harrity and world No. 52 Timmy Brownell will defend the U.S. men’s team gold medal. Twenty-year-old Marina Stefanoni will represent Team USA in the women’s individual competition following her 2021 Junior Pan American Games individual gold medal.
The U.S. women will enter the competition as gold medal favorites while the U.S. men will aim to exceed their 3/4 seeding.
“The 2019 Pan Am Games were a historic success for Team USA squash, and we have a squad capable of achieving that and more in Santiago,” said Ong Beng Hee, the Ganek Family US Squash Head National Coach. “We have proven gold medalists in Amanda, Olivia Clyne and Todd, and we will need their experience and leadership. This is the first time we will have two of the world’s top ten women with Olivia Fiechter, who will no doubt challenge for individual gold as well. Marina earned her place here on the court and she will push to reach the podium. Shah and Timmy are two of our brightest players on the men’s team and I can’t wait to see what they can do in this high level of international competition.”
Sobhy made history by becoming the first Pan American Games squash player to earn gold medals in all three competitions at the 2015 Toronto Games–a feat the twenty-nine-year-old repeated at the 2019 Lima Games. Fiechter has solidified her position as a top ten player in the world and is set for her first Pan American Games appearance. Blatchford Clyne will aim to extend her already medal-laden Games career in her fourth appearance, which includes two gold and one bronze team medals, two individual silver medals, and one doubles bronze.
The U.S. men’s team will feature two Pan Am Games debutantes in the form of Khan and Brownell. Harrity will make his third tournament appearance and aim to add to his gold and bronze team medals and gold doubles medal.
Draws and more information will be available closer to the event.
Olympic & Paralympic Day is a celebration of the Olympic and Paralympic movements and the joy of sport by millions of people around the world. Held annually on June 23 and known worldwide as Olympic Day, the USOPC worked in partnership with the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee to recognize the day as Olympic & Paralympic Day in the United States, beginning in 2020. The day celebrates fitness, well-being, sport culture and educational opportunities, while promoting the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect, and the Paralympic values of determination, inspiration, courage and equality.