By Jim Morris, The Canadian Press

The lessons Annamay Pierse learned in the pool at the 2007 Pan American Games laid the foundation for her world-record performance at last summer's world championships.

"It was a huge meet for me," Pierse said. "It was so much fun and good to be on that international stage where you are racing the rest of the world."

The Edmonton swimmer captured three medals at the 2007 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"It wasn't as much pressure and it wasn't as hard to make a final," Pierse said. "You could get through and learn how to go through all the stages and still come out with success at the other end."

Rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Orlando also has fond memories of Rio. She won three gold medals and carried the Canadian flag at the closing ceremonies.

Bringing the 2015 Pan Am Games to Toronto would allow other Canadian athletes the thrill of experiencing international competition with the advantage of competing on home soil.

"One of my dreams has always been to compete in front of a home crowd, I've never had a chance to," said Orlando, who finished 12th at the 2008 Summer Olympics. "It would mean so much, getting us motivated, getting us inspired, getting our country behind us and our city behind us.

"It's so important."

Orlando will be part of the Canadian delegation which will make an hour-long presentation Friday in Guadalajara, Mexico, in hopes of convincing the Pan American Sport Organization to award the 2015 Games to Toronto. The other bidding cities are Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Columbia.

The winning city will be announced Friday.

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, an Olympic bronze medallist in hurdles, said one of the major benefits of Toronto hosting the Pan Ams would be the sports infrastructure built for the Games. A lack of sports venues in the Toronto area has resulted in high-calibre athletes being forced to leave the country to train.

"The importance of having the Pan Ams in Toronto would be to help with the development of athletes in the country," Lopes-Schliep said in a recent telephone interview from Nebraska, where she is currently training. "It's like that saying 'It takes a community to raise a child.' If we can build that stuff, we have so much talent in Canada, in Toronto. To have it in my home town, it would be a neat part of it."

The price tag for the bid includes a budget of $1.4 billion for the sporting event and $1 billion for an athletes' village, which is expected to be turned into a mixed-income neighbourhood serviced by transit after the Games.

Plans call for more than 50 venues in the region from Niagara Falls to Miden and Oshawa, including six new facilities to be built in Toronto, Markham and Hamilton.

Among the facilities would be the multi-sport Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, a new aquatics centre plus a pair of 50-metre training pools, a stadium with seating for 15,000, and a cycling velodrome.

Pierse said Toronto desperately needs the new pools.

"Toronto doesn't have a world class pool," she said. "We don't even have a pool there that is sanctioned to hold any sort of international meet.

"If you have the other facilities around, you create so much more of a sporting community."

Orlando said building these summer venues will help develop future Olympic athletes, much like the legacy of the 1988 Calgary Games developed a successful crop of winter Olympians.

"Our summer athletes are just as strong as our winter athletes, but we don't give them an environment to train in," she said. "These Games are going to create a nurturing environment for our high-performance athletes. It's even more important for our developing athletes.

"Sometimes we tend to focus on our Olympic athletes during the Olympic year. People tend to forget about the 10 or 15 years of preparation it takes for the athletes to get there. We don't have the foundation set up for our athletes and for developing our athletes at a younger age."

Lopes-Schliep said the health benefits extend beyond high-performance athletes. More swimming pools, tracks and playing fields might encourage a healthier lifestyle for ordinary people.

"Just getting the kids out of the house," she said. "A lot of the younger generation is just glued to the TV and video games. If you have more buildings and equipment you can go use, I'm sure people can take advantage of it."

The Pan Ams don't have the high profile of an Olympic Games or even world championships. Still, athletes like sprinter Anson Henry take them seriously.

"It's still a very high level of competition," said Henry, who has competed at two Pan Ams. "Any international championship is a big deal."

Henry likes the variety of sports included in a Pan Am Games. Events range from field hockey, to shooting, cycling, archery, wrestling and water skiing. Some Pan Am competitions also serve as an Olympic qualifying event.

"It would give a lot of exposure to some of the upcoming athletes in the various sports across the board," said Henry. "It would give a good idea to the fans, and people in the country, of the talent coming up.

"It's good for Canadians to see the athletes out there."