De Grasse, Oleksiak lead Canada's Olympic youth movement

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The youthful yin and yang of this Team Canada moving forward into a new Olympic cycle may well be around for a while, so you better get used to them.

That’d be Penny Oleksiak by water and Andre De Grasse by land, of course, and when was the last time Canada had two Olympians this young to keep tabs on? Oleksiak took the first half of these Olympic Games by storm. Then as if climbing out of the pool and handing a baton, De Grasse carried it home to the finish line.

So there’s a 16-year-old swimmer, and a 21-year-old runner who between them will take seven medals home to show for their first of these jamborees. How many more Olympics they’ll have in them is impossible to say, but what’s obvious is that the prospects are enough to have the marketing arms of the Canadian Olympic Committee and their corporate partners doing pushups to gain strength for the onslaught ahead.

It’s enough to bring newfound credibility and respect in the swimming and running crowd’s top tier, and that extends to their teammates, several of them just as young and dynamic, if not quite so ahead of the curve.

And it’s enough, of course, to demand the question of how they handle what’s coming. This is not just a sports story now, or a story about sudden fame. It’s about coming of age, and growing up while the eyes of a now global audience sitting up and taking notice.

Oleksiak will walk into the Maracanã Sunday night holding the flag and wearing a matching set of gold, silver and bronze, and another bronze on top. No one really knew what to expect of her coming in here. At least in one respect, she’s familiar with this rare air, with an older brother, NHLer Jamie, who’s been through his own version of hothouse, high-pressure development.

For now, all she wants to do is go home and get a new dog. Play with her friends. Ride her bike, and catch some Pokemon.

De Grasse is in a little different place, having set his path up when he signed that $11-million deal with Puma last year and moved to Phoenix to train full-time as a professional. Once Usain Bolt retires -- and what does he have left to prove after the triple triple of 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay completed here? -- the sprints become the Canadian’s show, at least in terms of expectations. And what a tough act to follow he’s got.

While Bolt is a natural ham, De Grasse is affably bland. Bolt is a big, sturdy bull of a man. De Grasse is almost wispy next to him. Their “bromance” has been dreadfully overrated here. Apart from their shared association as Puma mates, they don’t have a lot to do with one another. The picture of them smiling at the 200m semifinal finish line was pitched as perhaps “the most famous in the history of the Olympic Games” by a Brazilian reporter at De Grasse’s  media gathering Saturday, which gives you an idea of the hyperbolic media waters he’s moved into.

What De Grasse does have is a nice smile and a blank slate. He’s a pitchman’s dream.

Where these two young Olympians share common ground is in their plain approach. They’re quicker to credit their relay teammates than they are to brag about their own accomplishments. They love being part of a team, while obviously hungering for individual success. They sound very much alike.

“I just want to go home and live my life,” says Penny Oleksiak.

“Nothing’s going to change with me,” says Andre De Grasse.

That’s entirely possible, even if their faces end up on breakfast cereal boxes.

But here’s the difference coming out of Rio: after the most successful Summer Games for Canada in 32 years, and while iconic elders like Adam van Koeverden, Daniel Nestor, Eric Lamaze and perhaps even Ryan Cochrane and Christine Sinclair are stepping off this stage, Oleksiak and De Grasse are representing now.

They are Canada, just as they are themselves: ordinary hosers doing extraordinary things.