100 days to Beijing, Canadian Olympians are kicking it into high gear
CBC
The sports calendar was thrown completely out of whack after the unprecedented year-long postponement of the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Most noticeable, amid the various restarts of league and event schedules, is having two Olympics within six months of each other. That hasn't happened since the International Olympic Committee began staggering the Summer and Winter Games in 1994.
But in just 100 days — on Feb. 4, 2022 — the Olympic flame will again be lit, this time in Beijing for the 24th Winter Olympics.
With myriad cancellations because of the COVID-19, the race to complete events and get athletes qualified for Tokyo seemed, at times, impossible. Now, the race to do it all over again is underway.
But this is exactly where Marie-Phillip Poulin wants to be.
The Canadian women's hockey team captain is treating October practices as if a gold medal is on the line.
"I love this. There's one place where I'm most happy and most myself and it's at the rink," she told CBC Sports.
Poulin has been waiting four years to get back to another Games — her fourth — to seek revenge after a heartbreaking shootout loss to the Americans in Pyeongchang.
"That moment crushed me a little. A lot actually," said the 30-year-old from Beauceville, Que. "It's still pretty fresh in my mind. But you have to look forward and we know where we need to be right now."
There's no panic from Poulin as Beijing comes into focus. In fact, you won't find many Canadian winter athletes panicking as the clock ticks down. Most seem at ease.
It's a somewhat different leadup to these Olympics compared to the turmoil ahead of Tokyo, when athletes were forced to pivot and prepare for much longer than expected.
WATCH | Canada's women win Olympic soccer gold:
Nobody really knew what the Games in Japan were going to look like with all of the new protocols and a seemingly unending moving target of qualifiers, training conditions and restrictions. But the Canadians competing there showed resilience and adaptability, something many of the winter athletes were watching closely.
In particular, the women's soccer team that won gold.
