In the pool, 16 year-old, Penny Olesiak was the star of the Olympic games, capturing four medals (a gold, silver, and two bronze). Speedskater Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes, in both speedskating and cycling, are tied for the most career Olympic medals with six apiece.
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“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.
The rest of the athletes followed the flag-bearers, with the Canadians wearing their trademark red mittens.
Long after most athletes had left the arrivals gate, gold medal-winning trampoline gymnast Rosie MacLennan stayed to sign autographs and take selfies with fans.
“As an Official Sponsor of Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic teams, we are proud to play our part by safely transporting competitors, team officials and their supporters home to Canada from the Rio Olympic Games”.
“We’ve talked about top eight in the past, ” Smith agreed.
The Canadian taxpayer is the largest single contributor to their Olympic teams.
“We just want to go out and prove to the world that we can compete with the best”, De Grasse said.
He says the host team’s 217 medals, which put Canada second behind the United States in Toronto, was a psychological slingshot for the athletes into Rio.
Oleksiak, Chantal Van Landeghem, Sandrine Mainville and Michelle Williams all train there.
She started the haul by leading Canada to bronze in the 4×100 freestyle relay on the first Saturday of competition, then rocketed to silver in the 100 butterfly the following night.
“Because our [goal] has always been two to three medals, and even though we did well at the worlds past year, we can’t change it to say, ‘Well, we did eight, now we’re going to do eight again.’ It doesn’t work that way because this a much tougher environment”, Eriksson said. It has everything you could possibly need for training. “I know the impact of our athletes’ accomplishments will live on and be replayed in playgrounds and on sport fields for many, many years to come”.
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While track cyclists produced one bronze in women’s team pursuit in Rio, the velodrome in Milton, Ont., is expected to generate more hardware four years from now in Tokyo.
