With 318 days to go, the Canadian rowing team put their boats into Elk Lake on Monday morning for the first official training session leading to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
Will Crothers, a 2012 London Olympic silver medallist, has spent thousands of previous hours on the lake training. But he tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep the night before.
“Today makes it real,” said Crothers, who has qualified in the Canadian fours boat, which is ranked No. 4 in the world heading to Rio.
There will be no shortage of motivation the next year on Elk Lake — or at Saanich Commonwealth Place, PISE, Westhills Stadium or Juan de Fuca Velodrome for athletes in rowing swimming, triathlon, rugby, cycling — as they get ready for Rio.
“It felt the same on the lake today as any day, and yet it at the same time it felt different, because it’s the Olympic year,” said Kai Langerfeld, another member of the Rio-bound Canadian four.
“It’s going to be a long year of training, but we’re definitely ready for it.”
Monday afternoon, however, was a time to reflect during ceremonies at Centennial Square honouring the Island athletes who competed in the 2015 Pan Am Games and Para-Pans in Toronto over the summer. Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and hundreds of school kids — on a professional development day holiday — interacted with the athletes and participated in sports and games that had been set up in the square.
“It’s cool to see all these kids,” said Parksville’s Langerfeld, double gold medallist with Crothers in the Pan Am Games.
“It’s the culture of sport that you grow up with on the Island and in B.C. It’s a part of what we are.”
Several of the athletes have yet to qualify for Rio. The likes of Sean Duke of rugby sevens and Rob Gibson of rowing fell short in the initial round of Olympic qualifying this year and have last-chance qualifiers next year for which they are preparing.
“This summer was a whirlwind,” said Duke, who won gold with Canada at the Pan Am Games, but lost the Americas/Caribbean rugby sevens Rio Olympic qualifier to the U.S.
“Now we set off on an intensive year of training and tournaments with the target of being ready for the Olympic repechage in June,” said the University of Victoria Vikes rugby star.
Rower Rob Gibson went from a silver medal in singles at the Pan Am Games to the disappointment later in the summer of failing to qualify for the Rio Olympics in the quad.
“We feel we still have a good chance through the final qualifier in Switzerland next summer,” said the 2012 London Olympics silver-medallist, in between signing autographs for kids during Monday’s homecoming festivities.
“It comes down to the next 10 months of work we put in on Elk Lake. The Olympics is everything for us. It’s why we do it.”
There is expected to be up to 50 Island-based athletes on the Canadian team to the Rio Olympics.
