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Canadian gymnasts become overnight sensations by crashing finals party
Typically, Canada is not a player in women's gymnastics — it's practically a cultural trait that sets the country apart from the United States, where teenaged gymnasts become media darlings every four years.
For a sweet spot time in London, all that has changed thanks to Ellie Black, Victoria Moors, Dominique Pegg, Brittany Rogers and Kristina Vaculik breaking the mould by reaching the team final in artistic gymnastics. The five gymnasts gave the country a charge with a performance that was reflected the world of millennials — Pegg asked for and got congratulatory tweet from Justin Bieber — while also satisfying that throwback urge to see Canada take its shot at the heavy-hitters in glamour Olympic sports. Rather than shrink from that, this fine, fresh, fierce fab five embraced it, meaning they got the pop-star treatment at a mall afterward. That's the spoils of being the first Canadians to make the team final.
From Bill Spurr:
The Canadian team competed in the same rotation as the top-ranked United States team and host Great Britain in front of 20,000 fans. One Canadian spectator said "the din was deafening."
"It was wild," Ellie [Black] said. "I was nervous about that because I've never been in something that huge, but I thought it was fantastic, now that I've been through it.
"I've had loud crowds before, but this one was incredible. To have people cheering like that, maybe not necessarily for you, but for gymnastics, in general, I just fed off that." (Halifax Chronicle-Herald)
It was great to watch and now the country has an underdog team of girls-next-door it can cheer on in the final Tuesday, when they'll try to hold their own against countries who consider a team medal a birthright.
As a nation of 33 million people, it's all well and good for Canada to strategically plan to win medals in newer or less contested Olympic disciplines. Or favour the Winter Games over the Summer Games, given our climate. You play to your strengths. That can leave the Canadian fan watching at home feel like the nation plays left out when the marquee events such as (with full acknowledgement of Kyle Shewfelt) women's gymnastics, men's basketball or men's track and field. Qualifying is a place at the table for all of us.
From George Johnston:
For, Black, it's certainly a pinch-me moment, although it might be a bit of a stretch to say she came out of nowhere. "But,'' she cuts in, "I did. This my life's dream. Everybody here supports you and you support them, we all have each other's back. We had a couple mistakes but most of the competition was great.''
There certainly was ample opportunity for them to buckle, given the circumstances and the setting. Other top nations did: Australia, France, Germany and Brazil all failed to qualify.
"There are 20,000 people in here,'' whistled Rogers. "That's a lot of people. That can be intimidating. I just looked around and took it all in. I had shivers. I think everyone handled it tremendously. It could've gone a lot worse. We all have strengths and weaknesses and I think we put those aside and did it for the team. No matter what happened on the last apparatus, good or bad, you just have to move forward. "These are the Olympics. You can't really be upset with any performance.'' (Postmedia News)
The feat also gives young gymnasts and hard-working coaches in clubs from coast to coast — an apt reference since Black and Rogers, who made individual finals, are from Halifax and New Westminster, B.C. — something to strive for down the line. This performance ought to lead to more support for gymnastics in Canada.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
