The Road to Rio will be loaded with potholes.
Kathleen Leahy of Victoria fell in one early but lifted herself out.
Field Hockey Canada began its quadrennial quest for the 2016 Summer Olympics on Monday by naming the 24 players it hopes will carry the national women’s team there.
Leahy was named to the list, along with fellow Oak Bay High grad and NCAA Stanford star Maddie Secco, and former University of Victoria Vikes players Thea Culley, Dani Hennig and Kaitlyn Williams.
Because of a torn ligament in her knee in her Grade 12 year at Oak Bay, the 19-year-old Leahy was out for nearly a year and missed her entire freshman season with the Vikes. And out of sight also meant out of mind of national team selectors.
“It was really hard [emotionally],” said Leahy of her year out with injury.
“That made making the national team tougher because coaches couldn’t watch me play.”
But Leahy returned with enough force and promise at the recent national tryout camp that she couldn’t be ignored.
“The injury has healed and I’m back fully,” said the dynamic five-foot-four defender. “I’m very excited about this. It was my first senior camp [after playing for the national junior team]. Making it to the Olympics has always been a dream of mine.”
There are no guarantees — Canada hasn’t qualified for the Olympics in women’s field hockey since Barcelona in 1992. But this group of players is drawing some buzz under new head coach Ian Rutledge, who formerly guided the New Zealand Olympic team. It’s a journey that will encompass along the way the 2014 World Cup in The Hague, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. The latter, on home turf, is huge since the 2015 Pan Am Games gold medallist will automatically qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Leahy is still eligible for the U-21 World Cup this summer in Germany. The big senior competition this year will be the 2013 Pan American Cup in Mendoza, Argentina.
Secco earned her first caps while still at Oak Bay High — and in the most demanding of circumstances — in the last-chance 2012 London Olympic qualifying tournament held in India and out of which Canada failed to advance.
But now starts the Olympic call anew.
