Canadian athletics showed ‘resilience’ at Olympics
“I chalk it up as an awesome display of resilience by our athletes,” said Gilbert, calling the Games a success. “We’ve had athletes fall, we’ve had athletes not advance … we’ve had athletes have mishaps on this journey but it did not impact the team.
PARIS – Head coach Glenroy Gilbert loved the resilience he saw from Canada’s athletics team in Paris.
Five of Canada’s 27 Olympic medals were won by track and field athletes. While there were mishaps, with some medal favourites missing the podium, there were also a handful of historical moments made under the bright lights of Stade de France.
“I chalk it up as an awesome display of resilience by our athletes,” said Gilbert, calling the Games a success. “We’ve had athletes fall, we’ve had athletes not advance … we’ve had athletes have mishaps on this journey but it did not impact the team.
“People kept showing up, they kept getting out there and performing.”
Three of the five medals were gold thanks to Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers sweeping the men’s and women’s hammer throw for Canada as they did at the world championships a year ago.
The 22-year-old Katzberg, from Nanaimo, B.C., became the third Canadian to win an Olympic medal in the event and the first since Duncan Gillis earned silver at the 1912 Stockholm Games.
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Rogers, from Richmond, B.C., became the first Canadian to medal in the women’s hammer throw at the Olympics and won the first Canadian gold medal in a women’s athletics event since the 1928 Amsterdam Games.
“To see us have so much experience and be so strong, I think as a throwing nation, it’s pretty incredible,” Rogers said. “And things like that don’t just happen.
