SANTIAGO, Chile — After the fourth day of competition at the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile, the United States added medals in archery, athletics and swimming. 

It also secured semifinal and quarterfinal spots in team sports, among other notable performances in shooting and wheelchair tennis. 

Team USA picked up gold medals in the Mixed Team Compound and Recurve Opens at the Centro de Tiro de Arco. Defeating Brazil, 151-144 in the semifinal, the U.S. bested Ecuador 148-143 in the Mixed Team Compound Open. In the Mixed Team Recurve Open, the USA cruised to the top of the podium with wins over Mexico and Brazil. 

In other gold medal performances, Evan Correll took gold men’s 5000m T54 Classification while his American teammates Miguel-Angel Jimenez-Vergara and Phillip Croft earned silver and bronze. 

In the men’s 1500m T38 Classification, Leo Merle VI edged out Canada’s Stanley Robert with a time of 4:12.62, one second ahead of Robert. Hannah Dederick took gold with 55.04 in the women’s 400m T53/T54 Classification while Ryan Medrano won the men’s 400m T38 Classification. 

At El Centro Acuático, Colombia’s Daniel Giraldo (1:14.06) just edged out William Rankine (1:14.35) and Evan Wilkerson (1:21.21) in Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB12 as Rankine and Wilkerson won silver and bronze, respectively. 

In shooting, Kevin Nguyen finished in third with a score of 218.2 in the R6 — Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1. John Joss III was just off the podium with a fourth-place finish. 

“Always aiming for gold, but a bronze medal is a bronze medal,” Nguyen said. “I felt pretty good going into it. It was a windy day, definitely very challenging wind conditions today in the final.”

Moving on to team sports, the United States’ men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams both won easily. In the men’s game against Colombia, Jacob Williams’ led the U.S with 24 points, Brian Bell added 15 and Steven Sorio had 13. 

The women blew out Argentina 87-26 Tuesday night, out-rebounding their opponent 50-25. The USA only had two turnovers compared to Argentina’s 22. Five different players scored in double-figures.

Team USA dominated Peru in goalball as Amanda Dennis led with four goals while Mindy Cook had 42 blocks. 

Lastly, in wheelchair tennis, Andrew Bognadov and David Wagner won their quad doubles quarterfinals match in a second-set tiebreak 10-2 over Canada’s Mitch McIntyre and Robert Shaw. Casey Ratzlaff and Dana Mathewson also got singles wins.

PHOTO OF THE DAY:

On Wednesday: Team USA will face Guatemala in the goalball quarterfinals, men’s wheelchair basketball will take on host nation Chile in the quarterfinals, women’s wheelchair basketball plays Brazil in the semifinals, while wheelchair rugby battles Colombia, who they beat 57-42 in the preliminary round.

There are also several medal events in archery, swimming and athletics. 

Check out the Wheelchair Sports Federation Media page for constant coverage throughout the 2023 Parapan American Games.