Lights, camera, and ... action. Canada's recent appearance at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, was for most competitors, on the biggest stage they had ever performed. This was not however the case for the Great White North's flag bearer at the Games' Opening Ceremonies, Brock's own, Tonya Verbeek.
A determined swimmer, a momentous event and a sincere cause. These are just some of the descriptive words of Brock University's Melissa Brannagan, who traversed the waves of Lake Ontario by swimming the great lake in what one can only refer to as a spectacular feat.
On the last day of competition at a picturesque swimming venue, simply put, Canada done good. Pardon the bad grammar, but the Canadians in attendance were at a loss for words when Scott Dickens of the University of British Columbia touched the near wall of the pool.
Horses run in the family, I guess you could say. Growing up around horses as the daughter of a Croatian national, Kati Vrbicek was born to ride. At the incredibly early age of just two, Vrbicek mounted her first equine. Now 21, it is evident that the rider has decided to stick with it.
When Turkey throws a party, make sure you're invited. When it is this big of a spectacle, have a camera ready and try not to fall off the edge of your seat. With 9,000 athletes and 170 countries represented at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, there was never a break in the extravagance of amateur sports and its finely tuned and peaking athletes.
So you may be asking, how did our athletes really do at the World University Games? Sure, some may know of Tonya Verbeek's silver medal and our surprising dominance in women's wrestling, but beyond the headlines, what really happened in Izmir, Turkey? Equalling their best ever result, finishing fifth, was the women's soccer team.
So, how would you classify Canada's performance at the recent World University Games? Promising? Captivating? Lacklustre? The answer to that question could vary depending on how you define the word 'performance.' Do you simply base your reply on the number of precious medals that will inevitably find the safety deposit boxes of Canadians? Do you conclude that their obtaining of personal and seasonal bests makes for a success? Or do you simply applaud these teenagers and twenty-something-year-olds from appearing on perhaps the biggest stage of their lives? A poll done by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) during the 2004 Athens Olympics overwhelmingly supported the opinion that amateur athletes proved their worth by doing what they had never done before, and whether that be improving a 10th of a second, jumping 10 centimetres more, or finally defeating that arch-nemesis, that's what counted.
