The first members of team Canada to leave Rio have arrived back on Canadian soil.
Advertisement
“We feel we did a really strong and successful job of having our athletes understand the environment they are coming into, to be respectful of the environment that they’re in and complying and using common sense”, chef de mission Curt Harnett said at a Games wrap-up news conference Sunday morning.
Friends, family and fans mingled with reporters waiting for the athletes to clear customs and pick up their luggage.
“I didn’t expect any of this”, she added. “I just wanna catch ’em all”. It is presented annually to an exceptional Canadian athlete who excels in leadership and excellence in an Olympic sport, while inspiring the athletes of future generations.
“So that’s, to me, where I’m hoping with the review that goes on with the whole targeting approach is: can we spend a greater percentage of the dollars a little bit deeper down the system?” he says.
Residents in Oleksiak’s east-end Toronto neighbourhood are planning a celebration for her return, tentatively planned for August 28. The pair said they are looking forward to figuring out where to display the midfielder’s bronze medal.
AM980 will have a reporter at the London International Airport to follow the excitement.
Canada’s flag-bearer said swimming and training at the Pan Am High Performance Centre in Toronto with women who did compete at the Pan Ams made not just her faster, but the relays faster.
“We all had a good tournament and we definitely deserved to bring this home”, Fleming said, holding her medal.
Speedskater Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes, in both speedskating and cycling, are tied for the most career Olympic medals with six apiece.
Members of Team Canada walk during the “Heroes of the Games” segment during the Closing Ceremony on Day 16 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Maracana Stadium on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
For the first time in 40 years, women won more medals (16) than the men (six).
With the women’s volleyball team set to centralize at the Richmond Oval beginning this fall, look for communities to continue to aggressively vie for these national sides and to hold them up as sources of community pride – as Edmonton has done with the Rio quarter-finalist Canadian women’s Olympic basketball team.
Advertisement
“We don’t have a favourite player”, Gillian Kilgour said.
