Argentina eliminated from Pan Am Games medal contention due to wrong jerseys
An unusual uniform snafu forced Argentina’s women’s basketball team to forfeit a group match at the Pan American Games on Wednesday, making the country ineligible to advance to medal rounds.
It all stemmed from the squad wearing the incorrect color.
Argentina was supposed to take the court with white jerseys as the away team to play Colombia in the second of three group play games in Lima, Peru. Instead it showed up in blue, the same color as Colombia, according to the Associated Press.
The team had 15 minutes to change, but was unable to get the correct shirts in time. According to NBC Sports OlympicTalk, the Argentina federation said it didn’t have enough time to bring the white jerseys from the athletes’ village to the arena.
Colombia was awarded a walkover 20-0 victory.
Women’s basketball development director Karina Rodriguez and Argentina team leader Hernan Amaya both resigned in the wake of the wrong jersey mishap.
“It’s one of the saddest moments of my career,” Araya said, via the Associated Press. “I take full responsibility for what happened.”
Argentina lost its first game, 70-62, to the U.S. and had a good chance at defeating Colombia. Argentina still had to play the Virgin Islands for its third game Thursday and won, 73-59, in the correct white jerseys.
The top two teams from each group go on to the medal rounds. The U.S. will be the top seed out of group B with a 3-0 record and outscoring opponents, 248-180.
Colombia came out as the No. 2 seed with its only loss being to the U.S., 75-63.
The U.S. is after its first gold since 2007. It finished runner-up at the following two Pan Am Games (2011, 2015). The 3x3 U.S. squad led by Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu won gold last week.
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