London Calling

Lewis hasn't forgotten where it all started

Lennox Lewis lights the cauldron during the London 2012 Olympic torch relay. Getty Images

LONDON — Back then, he was just a kid with a funny accent, a nobody with a second-hand heavy bag and a dream of making a name for himself as an amateur boxer.

Everyone now knows him as Lennox Lewis, an Olympic and undisputed world heavyweight champion. But Lewis, long since moved back to London, has never forgotten the town where it all began for him — Kitchener.

As the 2012 Olympics draws the world’s best amateur fighters to London, Lewis reflected in an interview on Friday on his own Olympic dreams as a young man in the Ontario city where he grew up.

When he was training for his bid to get to the 1984 Olympics, people would stop the Cameron Heights grad in the street and shout out support.

“Even jogging in Kitchener, people would stop and cheer me on, and say ‘Hey, I hope you do it,’” he said.

Lewis didn’t have a name or a gym or much equipment then, but he remembers the feeling that his adopted city was behind him.

“It wasn’t an easy road. I remember when I was trying to get to the ’84 Olympics, trying to find sponsors and trying to get my trainer there, there were a lot of Kitchener people that helped and stepped up to the plate,” he said.

“That’s what I love about Kitchener. They support their local athletes.”

Lewis arrived in Kitchener in 1977 as a poorly disciplined and alienated kid from East London, with his mother Violet, a single parent. He found the father he never had in coach Arnie Boehm, who channeled his energy into boxing.

Teased by his classmates about his Cockney accent, a tall and gangly Lewis often responded with aggression. A teacher sent him to the Waterloo Regional Boxing Academy, where Boehm recognized his talent.

“He was a very wise man and very caring. He helped not only me, but a lot of other boxers,” Lewis said. “I miss him. He was like a father figure to me.”

Boehm trained plenty of notable local fighters, including Chris Johnson, who won bronze at the Barcelona Olympics; his brother Greg, who also fought for Canada; Art Binkowski, a heavyweight pro; and Sid and Fitz Vanderpool.

But Lewis was always his prized pupil.

Lewis made it to the quarter final at the 1984 Games as an 18-year-old, losing to American Tyrell Biggs. Four years later, he wouldn’t be beat — taking home gold for Canada at the Seoul Olympics by beating Riddick Bowe.

That medal became his “gold ticket,” as he put it, to a remarkable professional career, winning his first 21 fights.

He talked about the influence he’s had on the next generation of fighters to come out of Kitchener, including Mandy Bujold, the 24-year-old who wanted to represent Canada at these Olympics.

“The fact that I’ve left that legacy, where people look up to me, that’s a great feeling,” he said. “It really makes me happy that has happened, that people can look back at what I did. For me, it was watching Muhammed Ali on TV that made me want to be just like him.”

He admits watching women box at these Olympics has changed his opinion on their role in his sport, too. At first, he didn’t think women’s boxing should be taken seriously, but he’s been won over by the calibre of the fighting he’s seen.

“I was pleasantly surprised, and I said, ‘Yo, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.’ They’re doing the same thing as the guys, throwing punches with velocity and trying to knock you out,” he said.

Lewis danced around a question about his shared British and Canadian identity. When Canadian and British boxers met up at these Olympics, he says he “cheered for the better man.”

He misses Kitchener, he said, and still cherishes getting back occasionally. He wanted to know what was happening to the Schneiders plant, the old Bauer skates factory, the Kitchener Rangers and Oktoberfest.

“I love when people ask me where I grew up and I say Kitchener-Waterloo, and they go ‘where’s that?” I say, ‘that’s the second biggest Oktoberfest celebration in the world!’” he said.

Lewis laughed when talking about seeing old Cameron Heights teammates from his basketball days, and recalled an alumni game that still cracks him up.

“Those guys haven’t changed. Some of them are bald and some are fat or have babies, but they’re still doing the same things. They’re still hogging the ball, and some guys are shooting too much,” he said. “It was great.”

As for his old coach Boehm, who died of a heart attack in 2002, still working at the gym where he trained young boxers — Lewis has a suggestion on how Kitchener should honour his memory.

“They should really make a statue out of him,” he said.

Coach needs Olympian effort just to get tickets

LONDON — As one of Canada’s top running coaches and the man who has sent no less than four athletes to these Olympics, you would think Dave Scott-Thomas would be treated like a VIP inside the Olympic Stadium.

Not quite. In fact, he’s struggled to even get inside the building.

The head coach of Guelph’s Speed River Track and Field Club qualified four athletes for London — steeplechaser Alex Genest, 1,500-metre runner Hilary Stellingwerff and marathoners Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis.

But he’s found it as frustrating as most ordinary Britons to get access to Olympic tickets. He and his wife Brenda have spent hours scouring online websites, bargaining with scalpers on Craigslist, and generally running around the city looking for passes.

In one desperate attempt, he even faked being a U.K. resident to get a chance to buy seats.

“The only way we were able to get tickets is we treated it like a full time job, for eight or nine hours a day. The first three days we were here, we didn’t see the sights of London, we went hustling for tickets,” he said. “I wouldn’t call that part of it fun.”

To get into Genest’s race last week, the coach lucked out and a friend gave him a ticket to go in his place. For Stellingwerff’s heat, he could only scrounge up one adult and one youth ticket, so he had to pick which of his three kids he’d bring.

To get his whole family into Stellingwerff’s semifinal on Wednesday, they had to dip into their Olympic “war chest” and pay an obscene amount of money.

“We’re paying through the nose. We’re paying a month’s salary for four tickets, and they’re not all together,” he said. “The valuation is insane outside of this Olympic bubble.”

Scott-Thomas declined an offer from Athletics Canada to come to London as an accredited marathon coach, even though his runners are two-thirds of the team.

He wanted to be free to support all his athletes in London, and be there for them as much as he could. Although they have accredited Athletics Canada coaches working with them, he still talks to his runners every day through email and texting, and has visited them in the Athletes Village when possible.

“Why I’m here is because of four people that I care a huge amount about. Anything you can do, and sometimes it’s just a gesture, and the gesture is the effort to get here,” he said. “If I can’t be there trackside, it’s not the end of the world.”

Still, it’s been worth the hassle and the money to see his athletes perform in front of the world, he said. His runners are like family to him. Stellingwerff, for example, babysat Scott-Thomas’ kids, and he wanted them to see her compete.

“When you sit in the stands and they come out and look like a tiny little ceramic figures way down there, I think that makes it worthwhile,” he said.

Scott-Thomas has a different plan to watch Coolsaet and Gillis run in Sunday’s marathon, as it winds through London. He’s going to take over a local pub near the marathon route, load it up with fellow Canadians – and watch the race on TV.

When his runners approach, he hopes to run into the street and briefly put on his coach’s cap.

“Hopefully I can get somewhere where they can hear me and I can say something meaningful,” he said. “That’s the plan, at least.”

gmercer@therecord.com

Olympic dream reached, Aubry looks beyond basketball

After ten years on the national team, Chelsea Aubry is considering retirement. Record file photo

LONDON — Towering a foot over her classmates at Kitchener’s Stanley Park Public School, it seemed Chelsea Aubry was destined to play basketball.

Recruited by a coach in Grade 7, she set aside soccer and dance, started shooting hoops and never looked back. Now, at 28, Aubry may finally be able to let go of the sport she loves so much.

Aubry, a pillar of the national women’s team for more than a decade, is pondering hanging up her jersey after a long career in the game. She’s thought about retiring before — but the prospect of getting to the Olympics has kept her around.

Finally, she’s achieved her Olympic dream. With Canada’s first-ever appearance in an Olympic quarterfinals at the London 2012 Games behind her, she says she’s “the luckiest girl in the world.”

Aubry is about to take a long and well-deserved break, and then she’ll make a decision about whether to keep playing. She’s not under contract for the upcoming season with her Australian professional team, the Bendigo Spirit, and plans to take some time to figure out what she wants to do.

“I have to think about it, take a couple months and re-assess,” she said. “There’s no guarantee what I’m going to do. I’m going on vacation, I know that, and then we’ll see what the future holds.”

But she’s already reflecting on what 10 years playing for Team Canada has meant to her. The team’s 91-48 loss to the U.S. on Tuesday was her 150th game with the senior national women’s team.

Basketball has taken her around the world — from a standout high school player at Grand River Collegiate, to four years as the first Canadian on the Nebraska Cornhuskers, to playing professionally in Slovakia and Australia — but playing for Canada has meant something bigger than that.

“To be able to wear the Canadian jersey for all these years has been unreal,” she said.

“I think one of the hardest things is going to be having to take it off. I’ve been so fortunate to be able to represent Canada for so many years and to represent Canada in the Olympics.”

Retiring now will be a lot easier for Aubry. The No. 11-ranked national team appears to have developed into an international contender, earning respect among basketball’s heavyweights after years as a pushover in major tournaments.

The six-foot-two forward has had a key role in that development, taking younger players like Guelph’s 19-year-old Natalie Achonwa under her wing. She’s been a leader and part of the “glue” that held the team together, her coach said.

There have been plenty of bumps along the way. Four years ago, when the team failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, Aubry thought her dream of reaching the Games would never be fulfilled.

She thought about quitting. But her teammates and coach were like family to her, and together, they wanted to give it one more try.

“When the team didn’t qualify for Beijing, she was devastated, thinking her dream was shattered,” said her mother, Shelley Aubry.

“But she rallied quickly, more determined than ever to get to London. It’s been a ride for sure and we are just so proud of the strength of character we have seen from Chelsea to get her to the pinnacle of her career.”

Aubry’s parents came to London, knowing it was probably their last chance to watch their daughter play for Canada. They followed the team to Turkey in June, too, when Canada was trying to qualify for these Games.

“When they sealed the deal in the game against Japan (and qualified for the Olympics), it was emotionally overwhelming, a tsunami wave that hit us unexpectedly,” Shelley Aubry said. “It has been a wonderful journey.”

Aubry, Kim Smith and Teresa Gabriele are the only three women on the national team who have played at two world championships and now an Olympics.

“They’ve left such a legacy, those players,” said the team’s head coach, Allison McNeill.

“Maybe they’re not going into the hall of fame, maybe they’re not Sylvia Sweeney, who was MVP of the worlds, maybe they’re not Bev Smith, but they’re something. They’ve brought it together and led the team. Our older players have unbelievable character.”

After the team’s last game together at these Olympics, the players lingered on the court, sharing long hugs and a few tears. For veterans like Aubry, they knew it was probably the last time they’d play together.

“My teammates have been the reason I keep coming back every year,” Aubry said. “I love the game of basketball, but I love the people that are involved in this program more.”

McNeill joked after the game she wanted to adopt Aubry, worried she’d miss having the easy-going athlete around.

Aubry, meanwhile, will spend the last few days of the Olympics enjoying herself. She’s waited a long time for these Games — and she’s finally able, now, to think beyond them toward that next big step in her career.

“They’ve been everything I’ve been waiting for,” she said.

Gardiner was gymnastics team's loudest cherleader

Madeline Gardiner of Cambridge was as an alternate for the Olympic gymnastics team. Record file photo

LONDON — What do you wear to watch gymnastics at the Olympics, when you could be pulled out of the stands at any moment and told to compete?

That’s the tough question Madeline Gardiner faced at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. The 17-year-old Galt Collegiate student was chosen as one of two alternates for Canada’s five-person artistic gymnastics team, meaning she went to London ready to get called in at any moment.

Ultimately, Canada’s five Olympic gymnasts — Gardiner’s Dynamo Gymnastics club mate Victoria Moors, plus Elisabeth Black, Dominique Pegg, Kristina Vaculik and Brittany Rogers — were able to compete, so Gardiner wasn’t called upon.

Instead, Gardiner became the team’s loudest supporter in the stands at the North Greenwich Arena. She and fellow alternate Jessica Savona of Oakville waved Canadian flags and basically cheered themselves hoarse watching their teammates compete their way to a first-ever team final, where Canada placed fifth.

“I have no voice right now. It hurts to talk. We were screaming as loud as we could,” she said. “I’m so proud of how they did. It was nerve-wracking just watching, but they did absolutely amazing.”

It was Gardiner’s work that helped Canada qualify a full team for the Olympics. She was a part of the team that competed at the London Prepares series in January, where she had scores of 13.500 on uneven bars, 14.133 on balance beam, and 13.300 on floor. She went on to place fourth in the balance beam final, with a score of 14.266.

After making it to a final Olympic selection camp in June that would whittle 12 hopefuls — who also included Cambridge’s Mikaela Gerber — down to the final five, Gardiner was picked as a backup.

She admits it was a little strange being a spectator in London, knowing she might be called in to compete — something that has happened before in recent Olympics.

“I didn’t really know the rules of being an alternate. ‘Do I do my hair like I’m going to compete? Do I bring my stuff?’ I think I ended up bringing all my stuff,” said Gardiner, who was joined at the Games by her mother Vanda and father Peter.

It was especially tough watching when she would have preferred to be competing, she said. But the gymnast was gracious on that point, saying Gymnastics Canada chose their Olympic team well.

“It was definitely hard because I really wanted to be down there with them. But I’m really proud of how they did. I know that they made the right choice,” she said.

When she gets back to Cambridge, Gardiner has one more year of high school and plans to continue competing.

Gymnastics, she said, will continue to be a big part of her future. That’s especially so after these Games, where she was one really, really loud witness to a watershed moment for Canadian gymnastics.

“We’re coming up,” she said. “We made history at these Olympics, and I think a lot more people will know about us now. I think it’ll become a lot more popular sport now.”

Stellingwerff finds an opening, but too late

Hilary Stellingwerff, far right, tries to make a last-minute push during her semifinal race. AP Photo

LONDON – Hilary Stellingwerff was looking for an opening that just didn’t come Wednesday night.

When she finally did find a gap among the tightly-bunched runners in the last stretch of her 1,500-metre Olympic semifinal, it was too late.

Stellingwerff, who needed a top five finish to advance to the final, made a last-minute push through the middle of the pack – finishing sixth, just one tenth of a second behind fifth-place.

“I was so boxed in. I was trying to stay patient and not have to go around four people, because that would lose energy,” she said. “I found an opening in the last stretch and I passed three girls, but it wasn’t fast enough.”

But the runner with Guelph’s Speed River Track and Field Club isn’t heading home from the Olympics completely disappointed. She ran 4:05.57, approaching the personal best she set in Rome at the end of May.

“I’m bummed, but I raced well. I feel like I ran the best I could today,” she said. “I saw an opening, and I was just like, ‘Go! Go! Go!’ hoping I would catch that last girl, but I ran out of track.”

Running in the first of two heats, there was a chance Stellingwerff could make the final if she was one of the next two fastest runners after the top ten in both races. She waited by the side of the track anxiously, but the second race’s pace was too quick.

Ethiopia’s Abeba Aregawi won that second heat in 4:01.03, while the winner of Stellingwerff’s race, Asli Cakir Alptekin of Turkey clocked a more pedestrian 4:05.11.

“I was like, ‘please don’t let the seventh person run 4:05,’ and they ran 4:03. It was just really fast,” she said.

The Sarnia-born runner ran in the semifinal the day after she turned 31. As one of Canada’s best middle-distance runners over the past decade, Stellingwerff had heard and read the comments from people who thought she had hit a plateau, that she was past her peak.

“If running pretty close to a (personal best) twice in three days doesn’t show I’m at my peak, I don’t know what does,” she said. “I feel like I’m just hitting my game now, and I can go a lot faster. I don’t care what other people think.”

Her performance at the Olympics will certainly quiet those critics.

“She’s had to live with that, and she knows that’s a part of sport. So to see her in the zone right now, and running the way she’s running, it’s just awesome,” said her long-time coach Dave Scott-Thomas.

The 1,500-metre specialist ran a tactically smart race in her qualifying heat on Monday morning, placing sixth with a time of 4:05.79. In that race, she was able to find a hole and punch through, although her shins took the abuse from her opponents’ spikes.

After missing a trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics by half a second after a bout of anemia, Stellingwerff is enjoying her best running season to date.

She qualified for London in a gutsy race in May in Rome, despite a nasty bout of food poisoning that had her throwing up before the race. Stellingwerff ran the fastest time of her life that day, 4:05:08, beating the Olympic A standard by almost a second.

Her performance at her first Olympics only makes her want to push her limits even further. Barely minutes after missing out on the Olympic final, she was talking about chasing one of her race’s toughest barriers, the four-minute mark.

“I want to run faster now. A consolation would be to get close to that four-minute barrier, to prove to myself that I deserve to be in that final,” she said.

Hoops women says soccer team was cheated

Canada's Sophie Schmidt and Christine Sinclair have the support of their basketball counterparts after their controversial loss to the U.S. AP Photo

As the only two team sports that Canada qualified for in the London Olympics, the women's soccer and basketball teams share a special bond.

They've cheered each other on during Olympic qualifcation rounds and were loud supporters at each others' games during the Pan American Games last fall.

So when the soccer team lost that controversial 4-3 extra time decision to the U.S. squad this week, Canada's basketball women weighed in.

The hoops squad watched the game together the night before their own loss to the U.S., and were pretty much unanimous in their verdict. Like most other Canadians who saw that game, they felt the referees blew it.

Big time.

"I don't have to be politically correct,  and I can talk about the refs. I thought they blew it for Canada,"  said guard Shona Thorburn.

"Canada played a better game and I thought they deserved to win. We were watching the gamme as a team, and I was heartbroken for those women."

Head coach Allison McNeill said she was puzzled by the ref's interpretation of the rule book.

"It was painful," she said. "It was really hard to watch."

Much of the Canadians' anger has been directed at Norwegian referee Christiana Pedersen, who made a pair of rare and decisive calls late in the second half of that soccer game.

She ruled that Canadian keeper Erin McLeod had held the ball longer than six seconds after making a save. But instead of issuing a warning or a yellow card, she brought the ball back to the edge of the 18-yard box and gave the U.S. an indirect free kick.

Then when that kick struck the elbow of Canadian defender Marie-Eve Nault, who was trying to get out of the way, the referee awarded a penalty kick. The U.S.'s Abby Wambach puit that away in the 80th minute to send the game to overtime.

"The ref, she'll have to sleep in bed after watching the replays tonight. She's got that to live with," Canadian Coach John Herdman said afterward. "We'll move on from this, I wonder if she'll be able to?

"Go and watch the replay of that decision. They'll be replaying that for the next 10 years in Canadian history. It felt like it was America and the referee against us tonight."

Canadian captain Christine Sinclair, whose hat trick accounted for all her team's scoring, was less diplomatic.

"We felt that the referee took it away from us. It's a shame in a game like that, which is so important, that the ref decided the result before the game started," she said. "We feel cheated."

 

 

Vanderbeek reinvented as the the Olympics' 'Oprah Winfrey'

Kelly Vanderbeek on a break from a filming story on diver Alex Despatie's mother. Greg Mercer/Record staff

LONDON – Kelly VanderBeek is used to getting attention with two skis and a downhill slope. At the London 2012 Olympics, she’s doing it with a microphone and a camera crew.

Vanderbeek, the Olympic alpine skier and the biggest downhill racer ever to come out of Kitchener’s Chicopee Ski Hill, is the face of a new CTV series called Raising an Olympian, on the mothers of Canadian Olympians.

The series, which features the moms of athletes including soccer’s Christine Sinclair, boxer Mary Spencer, triathlete Paula Findley and shot putter Dylan Armstrong, has tugged a few heartstrings, she said.

“So far we’ve had some tear jerkers… but that’s sports. It’s a love-hate relationship. These moms and these athletes are putting everything they’ve got into it,” Vanderbeek said. “Some times the failures remind us of how big the successes are, and how hard is it.”

The stories are airing on CTV’s primetime Olympic show with Brian Williams, and online at CTVOlympics.ca. They promise to help us understand the sacrifices mothers of Olympians make, and the joy and heartache of watching your child compete in front of the world, Vanderbeek said.

“Lisa LaFlamme called me the Oprah Winfrey of the Olympics,” she said, with a laugh. “I’m making everybody cry. I don’t mean to, but there’s just so much emotion in sport, and I get it. I think the moms are comfortable around me.”

Vanderbeek also has her husband David Ford, the five-time Olympic whitewater kayaker, in London with her too, helping out as a member of her camera crew.

The 29-year-old worked as a commentator during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, and has logged plenty of hours in front of the camera with CBC’s flagship ski-racing shows. This past season, she called her first World Cup race for Sportsnet.

But this Raising an Olympian series is the first non-skiing-related TV gig the Vanderbeek has had, and she’s loving it. With her own ski career at a crossroads because of an ongoing knee injury, she’s looking to get more experience in her budding career as a broadcaster.

“To be asked to do something that’s completely unrelated to alpine skiing, that’s something I had hoped would come but you never know it will,” she said. “I’m just excited it’s going as well as it is, and to be given this chance.”

VanderBeek has enjoyed a sparkling career in ski racing, including three podiums finishes at the World Cup level since making her debut in Lake Louise in 2001. She finished fourth in the super-G event at the 2006 Games, missing the podium by just 0.03 seconds.

Her hopes to compete in the 2010 Games ended after a bad crash on a training run at a World Cup event in France in December 2009, causing injuries she’s still trying to recover from.

In the Raising an Olympian series, Vanderbeek takes viewers right along for the ride as she sits with moms on the edge of their seat, watching their kids compete at the Games. There have been some tough moments, she said.

“It’s been emotional. I really know what the moms are going through because I know first-hand what it’s like to compete, but I also what it’s like to support my husband going through it. I find I’m really on that emotional roller coaster with the mothers,” she said.

“I’ve connected with them. I haven’t just been interviewing them. They’ve really let me into their world.”

In September, she’ll make the big decision – to compete in the upcoming ski season or retire – from the career that has been her primary focus since she was a teenager. Vanderbeek says she still has pain in her knee, a lingering effect of that crash in late 2009.

But Vanderbeek knows there is life after skiing, and says she’ll embrace it. Either way, it looks like there’s a good chance Canadians will see more of her on TV.

“My knee is still improving, but we need to make a call as to whether I continue skiing or not,” she said.

“But I’ve been very lucky. I feel like whether I’m skiing or not skiing, I’ll be ok. Whatever way my road takes me, I think there’ll be a reason for it, and I’m just going to go with it.”

Canada eliminated from Games by U.S. steamroller

Guelph's Natalie Achonwa fights for the ball in Canada's final game at the Olympics. CP photo

LONDON — Canada’s basketball women ended their feel-good run at the Olympics Tuesday, stopped cold by a dominant U.S. team that looks like it’s playing in a league of its own.

The score, 91-48, might have been bloated, but the Canadians will leave London with a few notable accomplishments. Canada made it to its first-ever Olympic quarter-final in women’s basketball, and the women put a scare into several teams that a few years ago would have walked all over them.

Playing before another full crowd of over 8,900 that included NBA stars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant of the U.S. men’s team, the Canadians showed some fight in the first quarter before the American freight train left the station.

The U.S. squad, made up of the best players from the WNBA, continued their easy-scoring ways and took advantage of Canada’s 26 turnovers on the game. They were simply too big, too athletic and too talented to be stopped.

“It’s probably not the best finish, but you want to play the best teams when you come here,” said Kitchener’s Chelsea Aubry, who had 10 points for Canada.

“It was good for us to move on to the quarters finals, for the girls on this team and for basketball in Canada. We’re very happy, even though the result on the scoreboard doesn’t look so pretty. We’re very proud of ourselves.”

Canada made it to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years. Ranked 11th in the world, the team finishes with a 2-4 record at the 2012 Olympics, with wins over Britain and Brazil and losses to the U.S. (ranked No. 1 in the world), Australia (No. 2 in the world), Russia (No. 3 in the world) and France (No. 9 in the world).

After the game, the team shared high fives and some hugs. It was likely the last game its core of older players would play together, with retirement looming for several national team veterans, including Aubry.

“The Olympics have been everything I’ve been waiting for. I waited a long time to get here, and it really lived up to the expectations,” she said. “These are the best teams in the world, and I feel so lucky and privileged that I got to be here with them.”

The team’s longest serving player, Teresa Gabriele, was teary-eyed after the game, knowing she’ll be saying goodbye to women she’s called teammates for more than ten years.

“Once the final whistle blew, it kind of hit everybody. Emotions were flying high,” she said. “This is the last time we’ll be playing together.”

But basketball fans also got a look at the national team’s future during these Games, particularly Guelph’s talented centre Natalie Achonwa, the 19-year-old who seemed to come of age in London.

Achonwa recorded four points, two rebounds and one assist in the game, her lowest output of the Olympics. But she was once again a big physical presence under net, and her coach thinks she’ll be a big part of Canada’s next two Olympic cycles.

“She’s got a huge upside to her. She’s quick, she’s strong, she’s super competitive and she’s a world-class rebounder,” head coach Allison McNeill said. “She’s one of the cornerstones for the next two quads for us.”

The long-serving coach got a little emotional talking about what it’s taken to get her team to this point, and the bond they’ve developed along the way.

“We’ve been through this journey together. A lot of us are really close . . . I just asked Chelsea Aubry if I can adopt her,” she said. “These two weeks have been unbelievably great. It’s been so much fun.”

Hamilton’s Shona Thorburn, who grew up idolizing her aunt Angela Orton, says Canada has the pieces in place to contend again at the 2016 Games in Rio. Orton was head coach of the University of Guelph women’s team for 22 years.

“I think we’ve proved that we are legitimate, that it wasn’t a fluke that we made it,” Thorburn said. “If we can bring back a good core of women, we can compete four years from now.”

Canada was simply worn down Tuesday by the relentless Americans, who led 19-8 after one quarter, 42-21 at halftime and 68-31 after three quarters. The U.S. showed why you have to go back to the 1992 Barcelona Games to find a game they’ve lost at the Olympics.

The Canadians knew the U.S.’s imposing 38-straight win record coming into the game but weren’t about to lie down, said Kim Smith, who led the team with 13 points.

They knew, too, they were just another stop for an American team rolling toward what appears an all but inevitable fifth straight Olympic championship.

“On paper, are they better than everyone else in the world? Absolutely,” Smith said. “But in sports, you play the game for a reason. Crazier things have happened, and every team that goes into a game is going to believe that they can win.”

Smith said the women have been overwhelmed by the response from young fans in Canada won over by their Olympic performance, and hope they’re inspiring the next generation of players.

“I’m proud of the way we’ve grown the game in our country. The amount of emails we’ve received from young girls back home who are watching and supporting us… it’s huge,” she said. “It’s one more dream that the kids can have.”

Brannen's fall was the 'lowest point in my life'

Cambridge's Nate Brannen grimaces after being spiked during his 1,500-metre semifinal. CP Photo

LONDON — Nate Brannen wanted to walk off the track and go hide somewhere.

But 80,000 people inside the Olympic Stadium and millions more on TV saw something else. Brannen, his leg bleeding and his dream crushed, picked himself up from the ground and ran his heart out to finish the race.

The 29-year-old Cambridge runner had waited four long years for a second chance at an Olympic final. On Sunday, that goal slipped away from him as he tumbled to the track during a blisteringly fast 1,500-metre semifinal.

Left face-down in his lane, it looked like Brannen had been knocked down by another runner, but officials later ruled he was at fault. The runner says he was stepped on from behind by someone else, and that’s what started the fall.

On Monday, after a sleepless night replaying that fall over and over in his head, he gave an exclusive interview about the moment he called “the lowest point in my life.”

After he fell to the track, his first thought was “‘there goes everything I’ve worked for in the past year.’ But then I thought I’d give it everything I could to try to get back in race, to be top seven,” he said.

He got back up, and ran a remarkable last 600 metres, eventually passing one runner and finishing 12th with a time of 3:39.26. Seventh place, which would have got him into the final, was less than four seconds away.

But as the finish line closed in, he knew he had lost too much time.

“Once I tossed in how much energy I had to expend to get up and catch back up, I knew it was over. With a hundred metres to go, I just felt like breaking down and walking off the track,” he said.

When it was over, Brannen’s heartache was written all over his face. He walked off the track utterly distraught, with nasty-looking gashes running down his calf.

His former teammate from his days on the University of Michigan track team, Nick Willis of New Zealand, put his arm around the runner and tried to console him.

Athletics Canada immediately filed a protest over the race, arguing Brannen had been affected by jostling but made a bona fide effort to finish, and should be placed in the next round.

That bid was shot down after officials reviewed the race tape, and found “Nate clipped the heel of the athlete in front of him, went down, and then was stepped on while he was on the ground,” Athletics Canada said.

Over the next few hours, Brannen received hundreds of message of support from people back in Cambridge and across Canada. He was grateful for it, he said, and it took some of the sting out of his night.

But it will still take a long time for that gut-wrenching feeling to go away, he said.

What the runner hadn’t told people was he secretly thought he was running fast enough this year to challenge for a medal in London — something no Canadian has done in 1,500-metres since Kevin Sullivan finished fifth in the Olympic final in 2000.

“I was coming here hoping for a medal. I kept telling people the final, but I was shooting for a medal. Top five was very realistic, and I knew if I had a good day in the final I could sneak in for one of those medal shots,” he said.

Brannen packed his bags after his race and got out of the Athletes Village. He joined his wife Teresa and mom Debbie, who were in London to watch him race, and tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Before his fall, it looked like Brannen’s dream of finally making the Olympic final would come true. He had arrived in London in the best shape of his life, ran a smart 1,500-metre heat, and had looked to be in great position in his semifinal.

“That’s the hardest thing for me to swallow right now. I felt like this was my opportunity to really do something big,” he said. “Had I not made the final because the other guys were faster than me that would be a lot easier to take. But to not be given the chance to run my race, that’s hard for me to take.”

After qualifying for the semifinal on Friday, he was confident the medal race was within reach. Now 29 and a father of a baby girl, Gianna, and with his wife watching in the stands, he spoke of running with more motivation because he had “two mouths to feed.”

Finally, after all the injuries — the ankle sprains and stress fractures in his feet, broken bones, herniated discs, torn hamstrings and heel tendons — Brannen was healthy and running at his peak condition.

“I felt incredible because my fitness is good,” he had boasted on Friday. “I haven’t missed a day of running this year. That’s my first time since my freshman year.”

Brannen was hoping to make the final after missing his shot four years ago in Beijing by less than a second, following a bout of insomnia that kept him from running his best.

This year, the former Preston High School track star was quietly having one of his best seasons on the track. At the end of May at a race in the Netherlands, he scorched a personal best of 3:34.22, and beat the Olympic A standard by more than a second.

So what now? He knows if he can commit to another four years of training for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, there’s no guarantee he’ll be as healthy or fit when the time comes.

“The bad thing is this only comes around every four years. So it’s a four year waiting game now before I get back here again. You never know how things are going to be,” he said.

“For me, a chance like this is probably once in a lifetime. To be as fit as I am, to be really ready to go, and to have something like that happen, it’s awful.”

One thing is sure. Brannen will finish out this season, still chasing an improvement on his personal best. He thinks he has a 3:31 race inside him.

If he can do that, it would knock off a longtime goal of his – getting his name in the history books by beating Sullivan’s Canadian record in the 1,500-metres of 3:31.71.

“At the end of the day, I want to run as fast as I can. Running in the Olympics for me isn’t going to be as satisfying as running a Canadian record or a (personal best) or something like that,” he said.

Running that fast would put him among the top ten fastest men in the world — and it would prove he could have made that Olympic final awfully interesting, given the chance.

ONDON — Nate Brannen wanted to walk off the track and go hide somewhere.

But 80,000 people inside the Olympic Stadium and millions more on TV saw something else. Brannen, his leg bleeding and his dream crushed, picked himself up from the ground and ran his heart out to finish the race.

The 29-year-old Cambridge runner had waited four long years for a second chance at an Olympic final. On Sunday, that goal slipped away from him as he tumbled to the track during a blisteringly fast 1,500-metre semifinal.

Left face-down in his lane, it looked like Brannen had been knocked down by another runner, but officials later ruled he was at fault. The runner says he was stepped on from behind by someone else, and that’s what started the fall.

On Monday, after a sleepless night replaying that fall over and over in his head, he gave an exclusive interview about the moment he called “the lowest point in my life.”

After he fell to the track, his first thought was “‘there goes everything I’ve worked for in the past year.’ But then I thought I’d give it everything I could to try to get back in race, to be top seven,” he said.

He got back up, and ran a remarkable last 600 metres, eventually passing one runner and finishing 12^th with a time of 3:39.26. Seventh place, which would have got him into the final, was less than four seconds away.

But as the finish line closed in, he knew he had lost too much time.

“Once I tossed in how much energy I had to expend to get up and catch back up, I knew it was over. With a hundred metres to go, I just felt like breaking down and walking off the track,” he said.

When it was over, Brannen’s heartache was written all over his face. He walked off the track utterly distraught, with nasty-looking gashes running down his calf.

His former teammate from his days on the University of Michigan track team, Nick Willis of New Zealand, put his arm around the runner and tried to console him.

Athletics Canada immediately filed a protest over the race, arguing Brannen had been affected by jostling but made a bona fide effort to finish, and should be placed in the next round.

That bid was shot down after officials reviewed the race tape, and found “Nate clipped the heel of the athlete in front of him, went down, and then was stepped on while he was on the ground,” Athletics Canada said.

Over the next few hours, Brannen received hundreds of message of support from people back in Cambridge and across Canada. He was grateful for it, he said, and it took some of the sting out of his night.

But it will still take a long time for that gut-wrenching feeling to go away, he said.

What the runner hadn’t told people was he secretly thought he was running fast enough this year to challenge for a medal in London — something no Canadian has done in 1,500-metres since Kevin Sullivan finished fifth in the Olympic final in 2000.

“I was coming here hoping for a medal. I kept telling people the final, but I was shooting for a medal. Top five was very realistic, and I knew if I had a good day in the final I could sneak in for one of those medal shots,” he said.

Brannen packed his bags after his race and got out of the Athletes Village. He joined his wife Teresa and mom Debbie, who were in London to watch him race, and tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Before his fall, it looked like Brannen’s dream of finally making the Olympic final would come true. He had arrived in London in the best shape of his life, ran a smart 1,500-metre heat, and had looked to be in great position in his semifinal.

“That’s the hardest thing for me to swallow right now. I felt like this was my opportunity to really do something big,” he said. “Had I not made the final because the other guys were faster than me that would be a lot easier to take. But to not be given the chance to run my race, that’s hard for me to take.”

After qualifying for the semifinal on Friday, he was confident the medal race was within reach. Now 29 and a father of a baby girl, Gianna, and with his wife watching in the stands, he spoke of running with more motivation because he had “two mouths to feed.”

Finally, after all the injuries — the ankle sprains and stress fractures in his feet, broken bones, herniated discs, torn hamstrings and heel tendons — Brannen was healthy and running at his peak condition.

“I felt incredible because my fitness is good,” he had boasted on Friday. “I haven’t missed a day of running this year. That’s my first time since my freshman year.”

Brannen was hoping to make the final after missing his shot four years ago in Beijing by less than a second, following a bout of insomnia that kept him from running his best.

This year, the former Preston High School track star was quietly having one of his best seasons on the track. At the end of May at a race in the Netherlands, he scorched a personal best of 3:34.22, and beat the Olympic A standard by more than a second.

So what now? He knows if he can commit to another four years of training for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, there’s no guarantee he’ll be as healthy or fit when the time comes.

“The bad thing is this only comes around every four years. So it’s a four year waiting game now before I get back here again. You never know how things are going to be,” he said.

“For me, a chance like this is probably once in a lifetime. To be as fit as I am, to be really ready to go, and to have something like that happen, it’s awful.”

One thing is sure. Brannen will finish out this season, still chasing an improvement on his personal best. He thinks he has a 3:31 race inside him.

If he can do that, it would knock off a longtime goal of his – getting his name in the history books by beating Sullivan’s Canadian record in the 1,500-metres of 3:31.71.

“At the end of the day, I want to run as fast as I can. Running in the Olympics for me isn’t going to be as satisfying as running a Canadian record or a (personal best) or something like that,” he said.

Running that fast would put him among the top ten fastest men in the world — and it would prove he could have made that Olympic final awfully interesting, given the chance.

gmercer@therecord.com

Stellingwerff battles her way into semifinal

Hilary Stellingwerff, here in sixth place, ran a tactically smart heat to advance to the semifinal. AP Photo

LONDON – Hilary Stellingwerff found her opening and went for it, coming out the other end a little bloodied but on her way to an Olympic semifinal.

The 1,500-metre specialist with Guelph’s Speed River Track and Field Club ran a tactically smart race in her heat at the 2012 London Olympics Monday morning, placing sixth with a time of 4:05.79.

Stellingwerff’s coach, Dave Scott-Thomas, had told her to find a hole with 400 metres to go and push through, and she did just that. She qualified for Wednesday’s semifinal along with 23 other women, including gold-medal favourite Abeba Aregawi of Ethiopia, who won Stellingwerff’s heat in 4:04.55.

With a tightly-bunched pack blocking each other from breaking out, Monday’s race was all about the tactics. In the race’s final minute, the 30-year-old found a gap and shifted into an outside lane – her shins suffering the blows from her opponents’ spikes as a result.

“It was a battle,” she said, afterward. “I just focused on finding the openings because I was boxed in. When I saw it, I made my way on the outside. I took a few scratches because of it.”

And although the Sarnia-born runner isn’t used to racing in the morning and felt a little off during her warm-up, she fed off the energy inside the Olympic Stadium, which was once again carrying a capacity crowd.

“I was just thinking, ‘get in the stadium and the crowd will carry you.’ That’s what my college coach always used to say. It was true,” she said.

“I walked out and the stadium was packed. I could feel the Canadian love, because you can hear your name a little bit. And I was like, ‘yeah, this is what I came here for. I didn’t come here for just one race. Let’s get it going.’”

Stellingwerff had a core of supporters cheering her on inside the stadium, including her husband Trent, coach Scott-Thomas, her mother, father and brother – and even her Grade 3 teacher.

It’s been a career year so far for Stellingwerff, who missed a trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics by half a second after a bout of anemia.

She qualified for London in a remarkable race back in May in Rome. Battling food poisoning that had her throwing up before the race, the Canadian ran the fastest time of her life in 4:05:08, beating the Olympic A standard by almost a second.

She drew on that experience Monday to help her get through her first appearance at the Olympics.

“That really helped my confidence today. I was like, ‘It doesn’t matter if I feel good or bad, this is Rome again,’” she said. “I knew it was going to be a battle, and I’d have to get top six no matter what I felt like.”

Stellingwerff’s semifinal is set for 2:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, which also happens to be the runner’s birthday. Another Canadian, Nicole Sifuentes, also qualified for the semifinal and will compete in the second heat.

The first five runners in those two semifinal heats, plus the next two fastest, will advance to Friday’s final.

LONDON – Hilary Stellingwerff found her opening and went for it, coming out the other end a little bloodied but on her way to an Olympic semifinal.

The 1,500-metre specialist with Guelph’s Speed River Track and Field Club ran a tactically smart race in her heat at the 2012 London Olympics Monday morning, placing sixth with a time of 4:05.79.

Stellingwerff’s coach, Dave Scott-Thomas, had told her to find a hole with 400 metres to go and push through, and she did just that. She qualified for Wednesday’s semifinal along with 11 other women, including gold-medal favourite Abeba Aregawi of Ethiopia, who won Stellingwerff’s heat in 4:04.55.

With a tightly-bunched pack blocking each other from breaking out, Monday’s race was all about the tactics. In the race’s final minute, the 30-year-old found a gap and shifted into an outside lane – her shins suffering the blows from her opponents’ spikes as a result.

“It was a battle,” she said, afterward. “I just focused on finding the openings because I was boxed in. When I saw it, I made my way on the outside. I took a few scratches because of it.”

And although the Sarnia-born runner isn’t used to racing in the morning and felt a little off during her warm-up, she fed off the energy inside the Olympic Stadium, which was once again carrying a capacity crowd.

“I was just thinking, ‘get in the stadium and the crowd will carry you.’ That’s what my college coach always used to say. It was true,” she said.

“I walked out and the stadium was packed. I could feel the Canadian love, because you can hear your name a little bit. And I was like, ‘yeah, this is what I came here for. I didn’t come here for just one race. Let’s get it going.’”

Stellingwerff had a core of supporters cheering her on inside the stadium, including her husband Trent, coach Scott-Thomas, her mother, father and brother – and even her Grade 3 teacher.

It’s been a career year so far for Stellingwerff, who missed a trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics by half a second after a bout of anemia.

She qualified for London in a remarkable race back in May in Rome. Battling food poisoning that had her throwing up before the race, the Canadian ran the fastest time of her life in 4:05:08, beating the Olympic A standard by almost a second.

She drew on that experience Monday to help her get through her first appearance at the Olympics.

“That really helped my confidence today. I was like, ‘It doesn’t matter if I feel good or bad, this is Rome again,’” she said. “I knew it was going to be a battle, and I’d have to get top six no matter what I felt like.”

Stellingwerff’s semifinal is set for 2:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, which also happens to be the runner’s birthday. Another Canadian, Nicole Sifuentes, also qualified for the semifinal and will compete in the second heat.

The first five runners in those two semifinal heats, plus the next two fastest, will advance to Friday’s final.

gmercer@therecord.com