CIS athletes making a bold statement at Rio Olympic Games

Before many of the members of Canada’s men’s volleyball team were competing in the quarter-finals of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, they were honing their world-class skills by playing on university courts across the country.

In fact, 10 of the 12 members of Canada’s volleyball squad have ties to Canadian Interuniversity Sport as well as the team's head coach Glenn Hoag, who both previously played for and coached the University of Sherbrooke.

The men’s volleyball is but one example of university sports at these Olympic Games. Swimming, beach volleyball, track and field, you name it, and there’s CIS athletes competing in events across a wide range of disciplines.

Overall, CIS has 158 athletes associated with member schools in Rio, including 81 current, incoming or former student-athletes. There are also 22 current or former coaches and support staff at these Games, including Saskatchewan Huskies coach Lisa Thomaidis, who led the women’s basketball team to a quarter-final berth.

While Graham Brown, the chief executive officer of CIS, said the sheer number of participants is a success in itself, the athletes in Brazil are proving they’re among the best in the world.

Through the first week of the Olympics, 13 current, incoming or former CIS athletes have been on the podium for Canada — and with events like track and field and wrestling still being contested, there could be more to come in the final days.

Among those already wearing medals are swimmers, including bronze medallists Kylie Masse (100-metre backstroke), of the University of Toronto, and Hilary Caldwell (200-metre backstroke), a University of Victoria alumna, as well as eight members of the women’s rugby sevens that won bronze in the inaugural Olympics tournament previously played in CIS.

“The success that they’re having, just in terms of even number of athletes that have ties is once validating that that university footprint is an important footprint in high-performance sport in Canada and that we do play a role in the success in our athletes and our sports,” Brown said in an interview with Yahoo Canada Sports. “I don’t think anybody’s actually debating that either, by the way. I think everyone’s sort of saying it, but this is a validation to what people are saying.”

Compared to the powerful NCAA of the United States, CIS flies often under the radar, even here at home. While it’s true many Canadian athletes gain valuable experience at the NCAA level, those that do remain at home face fierce competition as well. But the reality is many don’t seem to know the quality that exists in Canadian universities.

For instance, while watching an Olympic volleyball match between Canada and the USA, Sportsnet personality Tim Micallef, who has also covered the CIS for years, tweeted that volleyball is among the most underrated of sports in the Canadian league.

“Volleyball is another one of the sports...I try (and) tell folks that the CIS is much better than you think. Maybe folks will start listening,” he wrote.

But it’s more than simply people aren’t listening, according to Brown. In fact, he said, CIS is partly responsible for its underappreciated status.

“We do a terrible job in the CIS of telling our story,” he said. “Maybe it’s kind of the Canadian way where we don’t do a great job as Canadians as sort of bragging a little bit about where we fit our successes, how good we are.

“There’s no inferiority complex so I don’t think that’s what I’m getting at in terms of it, but there’s certainly a bit of a laissez-faire approach to our self-promotion of how important and how good university sports are,” he continued.

While CIS is only a portion of the picture, along with national governing bodies, private club teams and the Canadian Olympic Committee, Brown said they've made a concerted effort to point out many athletes — current, former or future — are part of the CIS family during these Olympics.

Throughout these last two weeks, CIS has used their social media channels to do that. A quick scroll through their official Twitter feed shows a steady stream of tweets from their own official account — with the brand-boosting hashtag #CISTakesRio — as well as retweets from the various regional conferences and member schools celebrating an athlete or team's performance or reminding of more to come.

Beyond Rio, Brown said CIS is looking to leverage the success of these Olympic Games. Whether it be to sponsors, the general public or prospective students, they want to spread the message —perhaps even brag a little — that universities play an important role in elite Canadian sports.

“Going to a Canadian university sport does not limit your opportunities. In some cases it can enhance them, but it certainly doesn’t limit them,” Brown said.