With the run to the bronze medal at the 2012 London Summer Olympics still fresh in the memory, it's not hard to find inspiration these days if you're a Canadian female soccer player.
"It was extremely inspiring," said third-year University of Victoria Vikes midfielder Jaclyn Sawicki, as she prepared with the Canadian team in Japan for the FIFA U-20 World Cup starting Sunday.
"Especially going into this [U-20 World Cup] tournament, I think I can speak for each player on this team and say we'd like to make a little history as well. I was with them [senior national team] in September of 2011 and it is amazing to see how much that team worked for each other to earn the bronze."
This starts a big year for the 19-year-old Sawicki, the Vikes' leading scorer last season and a 2011 CIS second-team all-star out of Archbishop Carney Secondary in Coquitlam, which concludes with UVic hosting the 2012 CIS national championship tournament in the fall at Centennial Stadium.
"This will be my first World Cup representing sa国际传媒 and also my first CIS national championship playing for UVic, so, I'm definitely excited to gain these new experiences in my soccer career. Looking back on all the hard work I have put in to training, this year will finally feel worth it."
Although only five-foot-two, Sawicki's spatial sense and ability to read the field, combined with her boundless energy and non-stop motor, has catapulted this former dancer to a level where it is hard to imagine her not at least being in the selection pool for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
"Rio 2016 is another four years from now and so much can happen in that time. There's a lot of work that I've got to do if I want to be on that Olympic roster, said Sawicki, a recreation and health major at UVic.
"When I'm with the Vikes I'll be working hard for them, and if I'm called up to national team camps in between, I'll be working hard there, too. After this World Cup I'm just going to take it step by step. And if I deserve to go to Rio, I'll go to Rio. If not, someone else will do the job better than I could."
sa国际传媒 opens Pool C today in the FIFA U-20 World Cup against Argentina at Kobe before playing Norway on Wednesday in Kobe and North Korea next Sunday in Saitama.
The top-two teams in each of the four groups advance to the quarterfinals.
