Muhammad and her coach, Lawrence Johnson, explain that they went into this season going for the WR and Johnson says he thinks she could have run  51.6 or 51.7 if she had "ran the perfect race."

She's also recently ran 16:49 for 5000m and 9:55 for 3000m. She has access to Nike training facilities through her father who works in IT and she has designed her own summer training program running 60 miles a week.

The field also includes Olympic champ Brianna McNeal, NCAA champ Janeek Brown and two-time world indoor champ Nia Ali.

Others competing include New Zealand’s #3 all-time Eliza McCartney, USA's Katie Nageotte and Cuba's former world champ Yarisley Silva.

Goule is the first Jamaican to win a medal in the women's 800m at the Pan Am Games.

Jamaica's Elaine Thompson (11.18) and USA's Mike Rodgers (10.09) won the 100m titles while Canada's Damian Warner took the decathlon. Cuba's Juan Miguel Echevarria won the LJ with 8.27m.