PARIS — Track athletes Hal Beasley and Tommy Gallon, the first Islanders to compete in the Olympic Games at Stockholm in 1912, really started something, to Simon Whitfield’s golden morning in the shadow of the Sydney Opera House in 2000 to the incredible run of 28 Olympic medals won by Elk Lake-based rowers from Los Angeles in 1984 to Tokyo in 2020.
Even the reverberations from the long-ago basketball silver medal won at then-ominous Berlin in 1936 by Victoria players Doug Peden and Art and Chuck Chapman are being felt in Paris as Canada’s Golden Generation of NBA players is touted to reach the podium for the first time since.
Here is a look at 10 compelling Island-related storylines on Team Canada as the opening ceremony looms Friday along the Seine:
THE LONELIEST: The world’s greatest athletes have gathered in Paris, but Canada’s first Olympic surfer, Sanoa Dempfle-Olin of Tofino, is on the other side of the world as the Games surfers face the iconic waves known as the Wall of Skulls in Teahupo’o, Tahiti, from Saturday to Tuesday.
THE FAVOURITE: World champion hammer-thrower Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, with his flowing mullet and even funkier demeanour, will cut quite the figure at the Stade de France from Aug. 2-4.
THE HOLDERS: Will lightning strike again for the Canadian women’s rowing eight after having moved training venues from Elk Lake to Quamichan Lake in North Cowichan? University of Victoria Vikes grad Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, Brentwood College grad Sydney Payne, Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski and coxswain Kristen Kit return in Paris from the Tokyo Olympic gold-medallist crew. Added is Tokyo Olympic pairs bronze medallist Caileigh Filmer of Victoria, Kristina Walker and Jessica Sevick of Victoria, Maya Meschkuleit from Yale of the Ivy League and 2023 Santiago Pan Am Games gold medallist Abby Dent. The women’s rowing eights goes Monday to Aug. 3.
PERSISTENCE PAYS: Hammer-thrower Adam Keenan and swimmer Jeremy Bagshaw, both of Victoria, missed previous Olympics by agonizing inches and will finally become Olympians at Paris in their 30s. Rugby player Caroline Crossley of Victoria was pretty much written off with an injury that cost her two years in the lead-up, but she rallied to make the team for Paris.
THE WHEELERS: When it comes to comebacks, few beat cyclist Erin Attwell of Victoria, who made it to the Paris Olympics despite missing the 2023 Pan Am Games after suffering a knee injury when hit by a car while cycling on McKenzie Avenue in September only to recover from that and then break her collarbone in training. She will join fellow Victoria rider Sarah Van Dam on the Canadian women’s team pursuit squad in Paris on Aug. 7.
MARATHON MAN: There is little that Canadian and North American men’s marathon record holder Cam Levins of Black Creek hasn’t accomplished on the track or road, except medal in the Olympics. Paris will be his third attempt at Games glory after London 2012 and Tokyo 2020. The men’s marathon is set for Aug. 10.
THE SWITCHER: A star Midget Triple-A hockey player, Krissy Scurfield was considering a number of full-ride NCAA scholarships in Grades 11-12 and dreamed of the Winter Olympics. An RBC Training Ground session saw more potential for her in rugby, and she became a standout for the University of Victoria Vikes, and an Olympian on the pitch in Paris and not in a rink in some future Winter Games.
“Hockey was such a massive part of my life. My dream was to play in university and then for the national team in hockey and it was a huge decision to switch to rugby,” said Scurfield.
It turned out alright as Scurfield takes to the Stade de France from Sunday to Tuesday with the world No. 5 Langford-based Canadian rugby team.
WALK DON’T RUN: It’s more than just a classic instrumental by the Ventures. Mixed-marathon race-walking is the event Olympic rookie Olivia Lundman of Nanaimo will contest at Paris with Olympic veteran Evan Dunfee of Richmond on Aug. 7.
“I love having my Island community supporting me. Having all the younger athletes in the Nanaimo Track and Field Club cheering me on and looking up to me is a real special feeling,” said Lundman.
THE MISSING: The dream of Paris ended in the qualifying rounds for the likes of Victoria boxers Bryan Colwell and Terris Smith, field-hockey players Anna Mollenhauer, Kathleen Leahy, James Patrick and the Langford-based Canadian men’s rugby sevens team, among several others. For all-world rugby star Sophie De Goede of Victoria, it was a devastating training injury just before the Games. For 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze-medallist softball player Emma Entzminger of Victoria, it was having her sport not included for Paris 2024.
THE NEXT ONES: The Paris Olympics will be over Aug. 11 and the attention will turn to the next group of Island athletes preparing for Los Angeles 2028, including the likes of Shamrocks star Casey Wilson when field lacrosse returns to the Olympics.
