South American Games: Argentina wraps up day one with 11 medals
Fernando Romero NunezUpdated 4 hours Ago1 Mins read
The 2026 South American Games kicked off in Santa Fe province, and with 658 Argentine athletes competing in 59 of the 61 events, there are plenty of medals to be won. The Argentine delegation wrapped up day one on Sunday with a haul of 11 medals, including three golds.
Argentina’s first gold medal came at the saber tip of Pascual Di Tella, who claimed victory in the men’s individual saber event.
Di Tella, 30, secured the victory with a 15-12 win in the final against Venezuela’s Eliecer Romero, who entered as the favorite ranked 39th in the world (Di Tella is 74th) and was coming off a bronze-medal performance at the latest Pan American Games.
It was then the turn of swimmers Macarena Ceballos and Cecilia Dieleke, who took top honors in the women’s 100m breaststroke and 50m backstroke, respectively.
Ceballos, a 31-year-old from Córdoba, took the gold in the final with a time of 1:06:80, setting a new South American Games record just 11 hundredths of a second off her own record of 1:06:69 set in July 2023. Argentina’s Martina Barbeito took silver, while bronze went to Venezuela’s Mercedes Toledo.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Dieleke delivered an unexpected win in the 50m backstroke, tying Brazil’s Etiene De Medeiros for gold and setting a new championship record of 28:38. Argentina’s Andrea Berrino took bronze in the same event.
More medals Three additional bronze medals came in swimming, with the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team (Delfina Dini, Cecilia Dieleke, Laila Chain, and Malena Santillán) and the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team (Máximo Aguilar, Guido Buscaglia, Lucas Alba, and Matías Chaillou) taking the medal, as did Lucas Alba in the men’s 800m freestyle.
Meanwhile, Juan Bacha in fencing, the men’s artistic gymnastics team (Ivo Chiapponi, Luca Alfieri, Daniel Villafañe, Nahuel Pardo, Matías Coralizzi, and Santiago Mayol), and Romina Imwinkelried in open water swimming all took bronze as well.
It sets Argentina’s first-day tally to three gold, one silver, and seven bronze medals, putting the host delegation in second place overall with 11 medals behind Brazil, which takes top spot with 28 (14 gold, 8 silver, and 6 bronze).
