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29-year-old Squash player and Oakville local Hollie Naughton is bringing home two medals from the 2023 Santiago Pan American Games, marking her second visit to the games.
Naughton won the bronze medal in women's singles, losing to American Olivia Fiechter in the semifinals. The first set went to Naughton, winning 11-8 but Fiechter came back stronger, taking three straight sets for the victory, 5-11,5-11,9-11.
"It’s great to walk away with another medal. Would I have liked it to be a different colour? Most certainly," Naughton said in a post-game interview with Caela Fenton.
This marks Naughton's second bronze in women's singles, previously taking home 3rd place at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Naughton, teammates Nicole Bunyan and Nikole Todd, brought home a silver medal together in the women’s team squash gold medal match against the United States. Bunyan played the first match, taking on Olivia Fiechter, whom Naughton pervious lost to in women's singles. Fiechter came out on top, beating Bunyan 11-7, 11-3, 11-7.
Naughton fell short of keeping the gold medal dream alive after losing a 31-minute long match against Amanda Sobhy, losing each set 11-8.
"It was a hard-fought match; there were definitely moments where I could have pushed on and hopefully closed out a couple of games," Naughton said in a post-match interview with Ben Steiner.
"Against this calibre of players, you’ve got to be switched on all the way through, and I had too many lapses in concentration."
Naughton and her teammates now have their eyes on the podium of the 2028 LA Olympic Games, where the sport of Squash will make its debut in the Olympic program for the first time.
