TORONTO 鈥� It began more than two weeks ago with two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria lighting the flame to begin the 2015 Pan American Games and ended Sunday with Fred Winters of Victoria captaining sa国际传媒 to bronze in men鈥檚 volleyball for the 20th and final medal involving Island athletes.
With it ended the tune-up phase 鈥� which included the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games along with the 2015 Toronto Pan Ams 鈥� in the cycle leading to the Big One next year in Brazil. But before that are world championships and 2016 Rio Olympics qualifiers still to come this year and early next as the international summer sporting season is only just warming up.
The more than 50 Island athletes from these just-completed Pan Am Games go into the Rio 2016 lead-up year having won 13 gold medals among their 20 in total at Toronto, a big-league city that surprisingly came to embrace what its citizens had previously derided as a second-tier event.
That came as no surprise to Torontonian George Heller, who saw it all play out before as president of the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games.
鈥淭his is a pattern to all Games that is almost formulaic,鈥� said Heller, who went from the success of the Victoria Games to become CEO of the Hudson鈥檚 Bay Company.
鈥淔our years out, these organizers couldn鈥檛 get elected dogcatcher. Now everybody is talking about Toronto bidding for the Summer Olympics.鈥�
Toronto will be left with post-Games facilities 鈥� pool in Scarborough, velodrome in Milton and track at York University 鈥� that athletes can use for years to come. Heller, who now sits on several boards, pointed to the success of Island athletes in the Toronto Pan Am Games.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the model the Victoria Games pioneered,鈥� he said.
鈥淰ictoria set the benchmark and never would have become the major training centre that it is now without the legacy of the Commonwealth Games.鈥�
There was particular Island gold-medal strength at Toronto 2015 in rowing, swimming and sevens rugby, which bodes well for Rio 2016. Even while the Island cemented its reputation as a training hub for sa国际传媒 in Summer Olympics sports, it failed to match the 21 medals Island athletes won at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. But when your own standards are so high, it isn鈥檛 always possible to exceed them. The 13 golds in Toronto by Island athletes, however, far surpassed the three-gold output of Island athletes from Guadalajara.
Heller still sees merit in the Pan Am and Commonwealth Games as multi-sport building blocks in each quadrennial leading to the next Summer Olympics.
鈥淚t鈥檚 part of a sporting biosphere and you can鈥檛 look at them individually outside of that biosphere,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 see absolute value in this.鈥�
Soccer player Emma Fletcher of Victoria, among the more than 50 Island athletes who competed in Toronto 2015, concurred.
鈥淚t鈥檚 cool to get this Games experience at the international level,鈥� said the 20-year-old, who is on target to eventually take her spot on the senior team at future World Cup and Summer Olympics.
鈥淭he speed of the play here has been a learning experience.鈥�
Also, the narrative that began with the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics continued 鈥� Canadians love to see Canadians win and are no longer shy about showing it. Canadian victories were passionately and boisterously cheered here by capacity crowds while games involving other teams were often spottily attended. The new sa国际传媒? Like it or not, it鈥檚 here, and most of us seem to like it.
After Rio 2016, the cycle begins anew for Canadian summer athletes. The 2019 Pan Am Games are in Lima, Peru, preceded by the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
