Rio de Janeiro's successful staging of the Pan-American Games in 2007 and their future hosting of the 2014 World Cup seemed to bolster its prospects, but the IOC recently noted that it would not be capable of providing the level of security and safety required for the Games.

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All this has paid off: Venezuela's football team, long embarrassing also-rans in South America, has become competitive, and the country has won many more medals at the two latest Pan-American games than in the past.

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Her thirteenth-place finish in the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada qualified her for Sydney in 2000.

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