When Hilary Caldwell goes for the podium today at the world swimming championships, to try to reprise her medal performance in the women鈥檚 200-metre backstroke at the 2016 Rio Olympics, she does so knowing she was aided by the springboard known as the sa国际传媒 Summer Games.
The newest sa国际传媒 Games generation 鈥� following in the footsteps of alumni and eventual Island Olympic medallist such as Caldwell, Ryan Cochrane, Lindsay Jennerich, Patricia Obee along with other Victoria greats such as Steve Nash and the Gait twins 鈥� makes its case beginning today in Winnipeg.
You can get there from here.
鈥淚 want to wear the sa国际传媒 jersey one day,鈥� said Lauren D鈥橝gnolo of Victoria, who will contest the women鈥檚 400 metres in the 2017 sa国际传媒 Summer Games in the Manitoba capital.
D鈥橝gnolo is among 92 Island athletes on a Team sa国际传媒 contingent numbering 354 athletes competing in 16 sports. That includes soccer star Emma Regan of Burnaby, today鈥檚 opening ceremony flagbearer for sa国际传媒 The honorary captain for sa国际传媒 is two-time Olympic-medallist swimmer Cochrane.
This is a big deal even for athletes who aren鈥檛 in Olympic sports. The sa国际传媒 Games is where the superstar Gait twins of Victoria first became known nationally before going on to revolutionize lacrosse.
Among the non-Olympic sports is men鈥檚 softball.
鈥淚 want to compete to a high level. My dream is to win a medal at the sa国际传媒 Games and eventually make the senior national team for events like the world championships and Pan Am Games,鈥� said 20-year-old Charlie Andrews of Nanaimo, a Wellington grad and third-baseman for the sa国际传媒 men鈥檚 softball team in Winnipeg.
Diving, however, is an Olympic sport and Bryden Hattie of Victoria Boardworks Club has his eyes on a dream: 鈥淢y goal is the 2024 Summer Olympics.鈥�
The 16-year-old Claremont student has already started on the international trail with medals at the Youth Grand Prix in Germany this spring. He will be in his home pool this fall for the 2017 Pan American Junior Diving championships being hosted by Saanich Commonwealth Place.
鈥淭his [sa国际传媒 Games] sets the stage for the next steps and I am really excited and focused to be here,鈥� Hattie said, by phone.
He will try to emulate his sister, Courtney Hattie, a Victoria diver and former sa国际传媒 Games gold medallist who earned an NCAA Div. 1 scholarship to Texas A&M.
Future Olympians and Commonwealth and Pan Am Games athletes say the multi-sport experience from the sa国际传媒 Games proved invaluable to them. Most of these performers in Winnipeg have never before been in an athletes village and eaten in a large canteen and stayed in dorms with athletes from other sports.
鈥淚t feels like going into live at university dorms for the first time,鈥� said D鈥橝gnolo, the Reynolds Secondary running star, who will do just that this fall as a freshman U Sports athlete who studying criminal justice and public policy at the University of Guelph.
鈥淚 am very excited about this sa国际传媒 Games opportunity.鈥�
The all-Island sa国际传媒 men鈥檚 golf team 鈥� Mill Bay鈥檚 Tristan Mandur and Victora鈥檚 Keaton Gudz and Nolan Thoroughgood 鈥� is comprised of touted next-generation talents and will be closely watched.
This is the 50th anniversary of the sa国际传媒 Games.
sa国际传媒 was third in the last Summer Games, behind Ontario and Quebec, with 122 medals, including 47 gold, at Sherbrooke, Que., in 2013.
