Canada's Female Athletes Owned 2016

Anne Merklinger saw the medals pile up in Rio this summer and was already familiar with all of the numbers before they made their way across TV screens, smartphones and laptops throughout the country.

There were 314 Canadians competing in Rio; 186 were female. Canada’s first 12 medals at the Olympics—they came through the first eight days of competition—were all won by women. By the end of the Games, Canada had given its best Olympic showing in 24 years, with 22 medals. Sixteen of them were won by women.

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It started with that first week of competition, but throughout the Games, Canada’s women dominated the headlines. Penny Oleksiak and her 4x100m freestyle teammates—Sandrine Mainville, Chantal Van Landeghem and Taylor Ruck, all of them first-time Olympians—kicked things off by taking home a bronze medal in the first full day of Olympic competition.

Oleksiak, 16, took the stage herself on the second day of swimming, winning silver in the 100m butterfly. She then anchored the 4x200m freestyle, winning bronze with Ruck, Katerine Savard and Brittany MacLean.

Then came Oleksiak’s golden moment, when she roared back from seventh in the final 50m of the 100m free to tie for a gold-medal finish with American Simone Manuel. She became the first Canadian to win four medals in a single Summer Olympics. Her historic Olympic performance earned her the Lou Marsh award, given to Canada’s top athlete of the year.

Oleksiak became the big name in Rio for Canada, but she wasn’t Canada’s only source of success in the pool. Kylie Masse won bronze in the 100m backstroke and Hilary Caldwell picked up a bronze in the 200m backstroke. Divers Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion won bronze in 10-metre synchro, and Benfeito won on her own, too, bringing home bronze in the individual 10-metre platform event.

There were moments through the Olympics where it felt like Canadians collectively went slack jawed over the women’s successes, but Merklinger, the CEO of Own The Podium, was never one of them. There’s a difference between a smug I-told-you-so and a satisfied I-knew-it head nod. Merklinger is firmly in the latter’s camp, even four months after the Olympics ended.

“It wasn’t a significant surprise to us,” she coolly said in late December. “We knew there was a very strong presence of female potential podium athletes for Canada going into Rio.

“Going into the Games as a technical agency we knew where our strength was in terms of what were our potential medal events, and certainly a significant percentage of the medal opportunities were in events where strong Canadian women were performing.”

In the years leading up to Rio, Own The Podium’s performance is gold-medal worthy itself. Its approach isn’t to simply pump cash into an event and hope for a medal. The group was much more deliberate than that. Women’s swimming relays are a prime example of the group’s strategy.

The Americans and Australians are often one-two in the event, but there was tremendous opportunity to move into that third spot after them, where the field has stayed open.

“We knew that depth of field was different in the women’s relays compared to the men. We had a strong group of developing female swimmers that were well-suited for performing well in the relay events,” Merklinger said.

“So (there was) an incremental investment, some additional support for a technical strategy that was focused on the women’s relay events in swimming and we saw the results of that investment.”

Part of OTP’s approach was to also nurture sports that had success in London in 2012. That paid off in women’s team pursuit in cycling, where Allison Beveridge, Jasmin Glaesser, Kirsti Lay and Georgia Simmerling won bronze for Canada for the second straight Games. Canada’s women’s soccer team went the same route, taking bronze for second time in a row with a win against the hosts in Rio de Janeiro.

Canada’s flag bearer at the opening ceremonies, Rosie MacLennan, became the country’s first-ever summer athlete to win back-to-back gold, as she defended her trampoline medal.

“There were several examples of where together with the national sport organization we were quite deliberate with developing some strategic opportunities,” Merklinger said.

“The women’s relay strategy in swimming was one, the women’s team pursuit in cycling was another. Women’s wrestling has traditionally been an event where there may be a depth of field that’s a little different than in some of the male categories.

“We’re pretty strategic with sports and identifying where there are some opportunities where the rest of the world may not be as strong and where at the same time we have strong developing athletes that are tracking toward medal potential, and how can we excel their development heading into the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.”

To that end, women’s rugby took a bronze in the sport’s debut at the Olympics. Brianne Theisen-Eaton came from behind to win bronze in the heptathlon, making her the first Canadian female Olympian to win a medal in combined events. Erica Wiebe fell somewhere in the middle of OTP’s plans. In her first Olympics, she won Canada’s third-ever women’s wrestling medal with her gold win against Kazakhstan’s Guzel Manyurova.

Catharine Pendrel won Canada’s final medal of the Games, taking bronze in mountain biking on Aug. 20. It was her third Olympics, but despite tons of international success between the Games in her career, it was her first medal.

Merklinger said that the country has seen a spike in enrollments in swimming, thanks largely to Oleksiak, and also in soccer, thanks to superstar Christine Sinclair and the success of the women’s team.

Looking to the 2020 Games and beyond, Merklinger and OTP are eying more sports.

“We’re always looking at opportunities where there can be a more rapid progression level. The combative sports continue to be a strategic opportunity for Canada,” she said.

“We used to be really strong in boxing and women’s boxing is another sport that we’re looking at very closely, and in men’s boxing. I think there’s a number of different variables that we can look at where we’ve had a culture of excellence in one sport where there’s a new event in the Olympics or Paralympic program is always an important opportunity for Canada.

“Traditionally Canada’s performed very well in new events so we’re always looking for where is there perhaps an earlier opportunity for medal success compared to other events.”

While she steers OTP today, Merklinger is a lifelong athlete who was a member of the national swimming team from 1977 to 1981. She had high expectations for Canada’s swimmers this year, but she still described those stunning moments in the pool, and the rest of the medals won this summer as “glorious” to watch.

“There’s a tremendous sense of satisfaction in terms of what happened in Rio in so many sports, both athletics and swimming to sports that combined for 12 medals,” she said. “This wasn’t a surprise for us. Those two organizations (swimming and athletics) hired world-leading technical leaders and they transformed the culture of excellence in those two sports.

“We have a very strong partnership with swimming. We have a tremendous pool of podium-potential athletes for both 2020 and 2024, as we have in athletics. I think for Canada to have the kind of success that we did in two very premier sports on the Olympic program that we had in Rio is a confidence booster for every sport on the Olympic program and Paralympic program.

“Yes, we were one small piece of the journey and we’re so proud and pleased for the national sport organization we were able to deliver and achieve the kind of performances that we had in Rio.”