Former high school greats Ashley Higginson and Emily Wold are no strangers when it comes to competing internationally for the United States.
Both are veterans of U.S. national teams in their respective sport — track and field for Colts Neck High School graduate Higginson and field hockey for Freehold High School’s Wold.
They are expanding their international experience to include the Pan American Games, being held in Toronto, Canada, July10-26.
The Pan-Am Games are an Olympicstyle sporting event involving thousands of athletes from the Americas (North America, Central America and South America) competing in 36 sports. This year is the 17th edition of the Pan-Am Games.
Higginson will run the women’s 3,000- meter steeplechase. She made the Pan-Am team by virtue of her fifth-place finish at the recent USATF National Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
In 2013, Higginson made Team USA for the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Moscow, Russia, where she was the top American female in the steeplechase. The women’s steeplechase is scheduled for July 24. Wold, who is currently starring at the University of North Carolina (entering her senior year, she is already a three-time All- American), is one of 16 players chosen for the U.S. squad competing in Toronto.
The midfielder has been a U.S. National Field Hockey Team member since 2012, making the team as a 17-year-old. She competed in the Jr. Pan-Am Games in 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The U.S. women began tournament play July 13 against Uruguay. The medal round starts with the quarterfinals July 20, The gold medal game is slated for July 24.
There is an added bonus for the winner of the women’s field hockey gold medal. The Pan-Am champion automatically qualifies for next year’s Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Among the marquee American athletes who have been Pan-Am gold medals winners are swimmer Mark Spitz, diver Greg Louganis, gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Scott Johnson, tennis players Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson and track athletes such as Carl Lewis, Al Oerter, Steve Prefontaine and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.