The soaring joy on the women鈥檚 Olympic soccer pitch for sa国际传媒 is tempered by the deflating lack of it on the hardwood.
sa国际传媒鈥檚 disastrous Tokyo Olympics basketball sojourn, which began with the failure of the men鈥檚 team to advance out of the qualifying tournament last month at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, continued with the failure of the world No. 4 Canadian women鈥檚 team to advance past the pool stage over the weekend in Tokyo.
sa国际传媒 has more NBA and WNBA players than any country outside the U.S. But you can鈥檛 just throw talented individuals onto a roster and call it a team.
鈥淭here were high expectations [for the Canadian women鈥檚 cagers] so this is hugely disappointing,鈥� said University of Victoria Vikes women鈥檚 basketball team head coach Carrie Watts, a former Canadian national team player.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great to have all this Canadian talent in the WNBA and top European leagues, but you have to have that chemistry on the court against national teams that are together a lot more. It鈥檚 a tricky situation.鈥�
The Canadian women have been able to get together more than the men, but it remains an issue that is not going away.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not going to change 鈥� the window in which you have the NBA and WNBA players for the Canadian national teams is not ever going to be extremely long,鈥� said UVic Vikes men鈥檚 basketball head coach Craig Beaucamp, who has coached Canadian national teams in Under-17 and U-19.
sa国际传媒 is just going to have to deal with it in both men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 in a basketball world that is advancing quickly as the sport continues its rapid growth across the planet. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a testament to the level of basketball in the world now. The NBA and WNBA are international leagues,鈥� said Beaucamp.
Meanwhile, the world No. 3 Langford-based Canadian women鈥檚 rugby sevens team was ranked even higher than the Canadian women鈥檚 basketball team at No. 4, but the former too failed to get out of the pool round.
The Langford-based Canadian men鈥檚 rugby sevens team made the quarter-finals and finished a credible eighth, about where it was predicted to place.
The women鈥檚 soccer advancement to the gold-medal game, and infielder Emma Entzminger of Victoria and her Canadian women鈥檚 softball teammates鈥� bronze medal in Tokyo, will relieve some of the angst felt by sa国际传媒 in basketball and rugby.
When sa国际传媒 plays Sweden for the women鈥檚 soccer final in Tokyo this week, it will mark the first time a Canadian team in the Summer Olympics has played in a gold-medal final since Victoria players Art and Chuck Chapman and Doug Peden lost to the U.S. in the 1936 Berlin basketball final played on an outdoor clay court that turned into a quagmire after overnight rains.
The Tokyo 2020 guaranteed women鈥檚 soccer gold or silver medal will be the sixth for sa国际传媒 in team sports in the Summer Olympics since 1936.
There have been Island connections to four of those, beginning with Peden and the Chapman brothers with their basketball silvers from Berlin. There was a long drought until the bronzes by sa国际传媒 in women鈥檚 soccer at London 2012, with Emily Zurrer of Crofton, and Rio 2016.
The now-beleaguered Langford-based women鈥檚 rugby team captured Olympic bronze at Rio 2016 in happier times and Entzminger and the softball squad bronze at Tokyo 2020.
There have been close fourth-place finishes in team sports. UVic basketball stars Gerald Kazanowski of Nanaimo, Greg Wiltjer of Sidney and the late Eli Pasquale lost narrowly in the bronze-medal game to Yugoslavia at Los Angeles 1984 and mercurial guard Billy Robinson of Chemainus carried sa国际传媒 to the basketball bronze-medal game at Montreal 1976 before losing to the Soviet Union and settling for fourth place.
