By Alberto Amalfi | @Tennis_Now | Monday, November 27, 2023

Dana Mathewson turned Santiago's red clay into gold road.

San Diego native Mathewson rolled to a pair of gold medals—in women’s singles and doubles—at the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

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Mathewson won two of the three gold medals Team USA collected at the Games. Her singles gold medal qualifies Mathewson for 2024 Paralympics in Paris.

Mathewson scored a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Colombia’s Angelica Bernal in the women’s singles final, earning an automatic bid to next summer’s Paralympic Games in Paris.

 

In the doubles gold medal match, Mathewson and 16-year-old Maylee Phelps (Portland, Ore.) beat Brazil’s Maria Fernanda Alves and Meirycoll Duval in a match that came down to a few key points in the match tiebreak, 3-6, 6-2 10-8.

“Once you get a taste of these medals, you want more,” Mathewson said. “This has been an amazing time.

"I never expected to be the flag-bearer; I never expected to get two gold medals. It has been unbelievable.”



Mathewson previously started off her milestone week as one of Team USA’s two flag-bearers for the opening ceremony, an honor she shared with judo athlete Ben Goodrich, and when she returns to the U.S., she’ll get married in a week’s time. Mathewson has now won four career Parapan medals.

The quad doubles team of David Wagner (Walla Walla, Wash./San Diego) and Andrew Bogdanov (Prescott, Ariz.) rounded out the U.S. medalists with a bronze. Wagner and Bogdanov beat the Colombian team of Daniel Campaz and Albeiro Moreno, 6-4, 6-4, in the third-place match.

Held every four years and one year ahead of the Paralympic Games, the Parapan American Games are the largest multi-sport event in the Americas.

Photo credits: USTA