Triple medal celebration at Canada’s House
It was one of the most eventful days to date at Canada Olympic House as Canadian friends and family came together to celebrate medals in three different events, women’s Soccer, Swimming Marathon, and Canoe-Kayak.
After a long Olympic journey travelling to different stadiums throughout Great Britain, the women’s Soccer team was welcomed into Canada House to a flurry of applause and cheers.
John Herdman shed light on how special it was to finally celebrate with friends and family. “You’ve made this Olympic dream exactly what we’d hope it would be,” he said. “The energy that’s displayed here, this whole moment, we will never forget it.”
Christine Sinclair spoke of how the support from Canadians gave their team an extra boost going into the bronze medal final.
“Waking up the day after losing to the Americans to everyone’s tweets and emails saying how proud they were of us really helped our team refocus and realize that we still had a shot at something special.”
Canada House then welcomed newly decorated Bronze medallist marathon swimmer Richard Weinberger.
“I’ve never seen a perfect race in my life. I’m not going to say his race was perfect, but I could not see a flaw,” praised Weinberger’s coach, Ron Jacks. “I think this is the beginning of a bright future for Richard, I have no doubt he is the best in the world, he just hasn’t done it, yet.”
An emotional Weinberger explained how hard his race is, mentally and physically. However, the support he felt from friends, family and fellow teammates were a big help getting him to the podium.
“Everyones been so great,” he said. “It was extremely motivating for me to see Ryan Cochrane win the silver medal. I always see him train, and he doesn’t really know it, but he is one of my favourite swimmers.”
Mark De Jonge was the final medallist of the day, and Canada House erupted in cheers to celebrate his Bronze medal in the K-1 200m sprint kayak event.
“Wow, thank you everyone,” he said. “It takes a lot to bring a tear to my eye. This is an awesome experience. It was unbelievable racing in front of that crowd, I knew you guys were all cheering really loud for me.”
– By Claire Hanna
