2021 Review – Canada Rising

By: Greg Rector

Year two of the pandemic has seen a return somewhat to normalcy in the world of sports. Nothing highlighted that more in 2021 than the Tokyo Olympic Games which went took place a year late, and without fans, but still managed to bring the global village of athletes together. Now living north of the sports world monolith known as the United States is never easy for those who do so, especially in terms of recognition. So I am going to take that time today to recognize the sporting achievements in 2021 made by Canadian athletes. The best part is the growth in areas where Canadians have never really achieved much if anything previously. I am first going to focus on the Olympic firsts and then on to the more traditional realm of professional sports.

Tokyo Olympics

Being an ardent supporter of women’s athletics, there’s only one place to begin for me. Up here the was called the “Summer of Women.” After being so close, so many times to defeating the U.S. Women’s soccer team, the Team Canada women led by the all-time women’s goal-scoring leader Christine Sinclair, finally knocked off the favored U.S. team. This is where history matters and where inspirations are born. In the 2012 games in London, the two sides met in an epic medal-round game in which the U.S. side came out with a 4-3 victory despite the hat-trick of goals courtesy of Sinclair. The youngsters on this Canadian squad were themselves inspired to believe. When they defeated the U.S. 1-0 in the semi-finals a 20-year drought ended. Went on to a thrilling gold-medal match versus Sweden which was decided on penalty kicks the winning penalty kick was made not by the legendary 38-year-old Sinclair but by a 20-year-old Julia Grosso, who as an 11-year-old watched the heartbreaking loss in London. Canadians erupted in glee and Canada had its first-ever gold medal in a Summer Games “team sport.” After the bronze medal disappointments in London and Rio, this was the most-watched moment of the Tokyo Olympics as 4.4 million watched the gold medal game, this after just under 4 million watched the semi-final versus the U.S. In Canada, the men’s national team has never come close to those types of numbers.

CANADA YOU ARE FINALLY GOLDEN 🇨🇦🥇

JULIA GROSSO SEALS IT FOR CANADA #CANWNT pic.twitter.com/UGzSkr2KCU

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 6, 2021

The Canadian women’s swim team as well took home more medals than ever before again defeating favored American swimmers in the process. Maggie MacNeil in her first games took home a medal of each color, her gold medal coming in the 100m butterfly event, while 21-year-old Penny Oleksiak, at just 21 became the leading medal winner of all-time for Canadian Olympians (men or women) winning her 7th medal. Considering the youth of this group of swimmers 2024 could be even brighter.

Now for the male Olympians, it was an equally groundbreaking Olympics. For the first time, the most grueling event of the Olympics the men’s decathlon was won by a Canadian, as Damian Warner became only the third man to ever break the 9000 point barrier in the event. The title that goes along with the victory of being known as “The World’s Greatest Athlete,” is nice sounding, however, Warner is determined to add the World Championship and the points record to his Olympic gold. For just the second time in Olympic history, a Canadian male won the 200 meter event on the track, as Andre De Grasse improved from his silver medal in Rio. De Grasse also added the bronze medals in the 100-meter individual and relay events. He now has six Olympic medals.

In total Canadians won 24 medals at the Tokyo Games, a new high watermark for an Olympic Games where there was no boycott. Women brought home 18 of the 24 medals.

WELCOME TO THE 9,000 CLUB, DAMIAN WARNER 🇨🇦

Canada’s Damian Warner has won GOLD in the decathlon 🥇

He has surpassed the elusive 9,000 points mark and set a new Olympic record pic.twitter.com/JGEly8b93U

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 5, 2021

Thanks to the pandemic the summer also saw the Women’s World Hockey championship take place. As always the deciding game was between the U.S.A. and Canada. While Canada has dominated the Winter Olympic matchups Team U.S.A. has generally taken the World Championship. Not in 2021. Team Canada won on a three on three overtime goal scored by Marie-Phillip Poulin (The Golden Goal Girl) did it again to Team U.S.A. I don’t care what sport you want to compare this rivalry to, currently, not a single one rises to the level of the performances these two teams bring. Team U.S.A. member Amanda Kessel afterward put it best, “Every time we play them, it’s going to come down to a goal, to overtime,” Kessel got it right next by saying “That’s why it’s the greatest rivalry in sports.” If you’ve never experienced women’s hockey you’ll be hooked after watching these two nations go at it.

The Professional’s

Is Canada a major tennis nation? The breakthrough of Bianca Andreescu winning the U.S. Open in 2020 was followed up by others as Andreeescu spent most of the year injured. Enter 18-year-old at the time Leylah Annie Fernandez of Montreal. At the Open Fernandez defeated the defending champion and third seed Naomi Osaka in the third round, she proceeded to beat former world number one Angelique Kerber in the fourth round, then brought down the fifth seed Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals the day after turning 19. In the semi-finals, she defeated the second seed Aryna Sabalenka. That was three of the top five seeds beaten. All the matches went three sets and she became the darling of the crowds in New York. Sadly she lost in straight sets in the final to Emma Raducanu. The men were not to be outdone in 2021 either. Dennis Shapavalov reached the Wimbledon semi-finals losing to some guy named Djokovic, and Felix Auger- Aliassime reached the semi-finals of the U.S. Open losing to world number two Daniil Medvedev. In total there are now six Canadians who are now ranked in the top 50 players.

Don’t look now but there are a record 25 Canadian players on NBA rosters including those on two-way contracts. The second most represented country in the NBA now. For the first time, the lone Canadian franchise selected a Canadian in the NBA draft as the Toronto Raptors used their 46th pick to select Dalano Banton from the Rexdale neighborhood of Toronto. The hometown kid is doing okay for himself as well. The names Barrett, Gilgeous- Alexander, Dort, Wiggins, Brooks, and despite being out still with a knee injury Jamal Murray, Canadians are certainly contributing to various teams in the NBA.

2021 also saw the most storied sports franchise in the country make a run at Lord Stanley’s Cup as the underdog Montreal Canadiens reached the finals before bowing out rather meekly to the defending Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. The highlight though was after forty-two years the Canadiens met the Toronto Maple Leafs in a playoff series. Two generations later the old divides between the Anglophone and Francophone communities once again collided. The Maple Leafs held 3 games to 1 lead in the series, only have the Canadiens complete a stirring comeback to win the series.

The summer and fall also saw baseball fans from coast to coast excited by the run made by the Toronto Blue Jays who missed out of the wild card spot by one game. Pretty decent season considering they had to call Dunedin, and Buffalo home for the earlier part of the year again thanks to the pandemic. Finally returning to the friendly confines of the Rogers Center on July 30th after being away for 670 days, the Blue Jays made a race out of the wild card chase with the Red Sox and Yankees led by Montreal born Vladimir Guerrero Jr who at age 22 hit more home runs in a season(48) than anyone ever has at his age (22) led the league in runs scored with 123, and led all of baseball in total bases with 363. Most years he would have walked away with the American League MVP award, though we all know what some guy named Ohtani did. Guerrero added being the youngest ever All-Star game MVP to his impressive season along with becoming the third ever son to hit an All-Star home run to join his Hall of Fame father the Griffey’s and the Bond’s in the exclusive club.

Overall despite the pandemic Canadian sports had a pretty good year. Taking top spots in many sports where the nation has never been seen before was a welcomed sight for the country as many were able to use those moments to get away from the effects of the pandemic. Having sports back has been a relief for so many. It was good to hear O’Canada sung loudly and proudly by the Olympians and to see Canadians perform well at some of the sports world’s biggest stages.

As always you can find me on Twitter @GregCowboys