The road to Paris will run through Starlight Stadium on Aug. 19-20. The Langford facility will host the North American and Caribbean rugby sevens qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Olympic Games. The men’s and women’s champion teams in the qualifier will advance to Paris 2024.
“It isn’t often you get a direct route to your dreams,” said Gareth Rees, the Victoria playing legend and now Rugby Canada director of corporate and partner relations.
“This give us our best chance of qualifying and getting our women’s and men’s teams to Paris.”
The men’s and women’s runner-up and third-place teams from the North American and Caribbean qualifiers at Starlight will get berths into the last-chance at-large world qualifier to be held next year at a site to be determined for the last of the 12 men’s and 12 women’s spots in the Paris Olympics.
Rees said tickets for the North American and Caribbean qualifiers will go on sale in mid-April at rugby.ca. Up to 18 men’s and women’s teams are expected for the qualifiers with the final fields to be announced.
“This is fantastic. I can already feel the buzz and hear the chants,” said Saanich South MLA Lana Popham, the B.C. Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport.
“The power of sport draws people in,” added Popham, during Friday’s announcement at Starlight Stadium.
“These are the events that took a hit during the pandemic but we are up and rolling again.”
(The men’s basketball Olympic qualifier for the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 had to be played in an empty Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre due to the pandemic).
Jake Thiel was on the Canadian team that won the last North American and Caribbean Olympic men’s rugby sevens qualifier held in the Cayman Islands and then played in the Tokyo Olympics, where Canada made the quarter-finals in a vast empty stadium.
Now the crowds are allowed back at sporting events.
“Home crowd advantage is going to be really important for us here at Starlight Stadium as we look to qualify for the Paris Olympics,” said Thiel.
“We really value that as a team.”
The Canadian bid beat out others from around the region.
“Months and months of work went into this,” said Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson.
“Tourism is an important part of Langford’s economy. We will feel the ripple effects. And this will be a catalyst for youth in our community. The effect of seeing high-calibre athletes is amazing on younger athletes. I remember launching our Belmont [Secondary School] boat beside national team rowers who were going to the Olympics.”
This will be the first time the Canadian women’s sevens team has had to go through the North American and Caribbean qualifier. The Canadian women qualified directly for the Rio and Tokyo Olympics by placing in the top-four of the previous years’ HSBC World Series standings and won the bronze medal at Rio 2016 when rugby sevens made its Olympic debut.
The Canadian men did not qualify for Rio 2016, falling short in both the regional and then last-chance world qualifier held in Monaco. Canada won the North American and Caribbean qualifier in the Cayman Islands for the Tokyo Olympics. But the latter did not feature the U.S., which had qualified directly for Tokyo by placing in the World Series top-four. The U.S. is currently No. 9 in the World Series standings heading into this weekend’s Hong Kong Sevens and not likely to qualify via that route this time. That means the Langford men’s qualifier will likely come down to a final between the Americans and World Series No. 14 Canada.
“The U.S. is good but I would stack our team up with them side-by-side,” said Thiel.
“The home crowd will give that extra punch. We will have home advantage and you can’t put a value on that.”
The Canadian women will likely not have to go through the U.S. team to get to the 2024 Olympics. The Americans are No. 3 currently in the World Series standings and looking strong to finish in the top-four for direct qualification to Paris. Canada is currently No 8. No other North American or Caribbean women’s teams are in the top-15. The toughest challengers in the qualifier are expected to be Mexico and Jamaica.
Men’s team player Thiel said the desire to get to Paris burns hard and bright.
“I played in the most unique Olympics ever with no fans allowed in Tokyo due to the pandemic and I’m still hungry to get a more traditional Olympic experience,” he said.
“But I would play in the Olympics if it was in the dark with nobody there. It means that much.”
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
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