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Editorial: Golden dreams

With the 2012 Olympic Summer Games well underway in London, Canadians everywhere are keeping a close eye on the nation’s athletes.

With the 2012 Olympic Summer Games well underway in London, Canadians everywhere are keeping a close eye on the nation’s athletes. And while the events and celebrations aren’t happening in our own backyard this time around, the excitement remains as 281 of our country men and women vie for a podium finish in 24 different sports.

At press deadline Canada had four bronze medals in synchronized diving, weightlifting and, most recently, judo. With Powell River’s Abby Lloyd fresh off a gold and silver victory at the Junior US Open Judo championships in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida last week, it’s a fitting time to consider her potential in the sport and the very realistic possibility of the Olympics in her future. The 15-year-old is already proving herself on the world stage and with Rio 2016 just on the horizon, anything is possible.

Several other Powell River athletes are proving themselves in various other sports too, including Zane Hernandez, 15, Calli-Ann Abbott, 14, and Carsyn Casparie, 12, who all represented the community earlier this month at the BC Summer Games. Zane’s older brother Cale is a promising athlete as well, recently qualifying for the 2012 Legion National Track and Field Championships on Prince Edward Island later this month.

Powell River has a healthy crop of young athletic talent and many keen supporters to nurture their future, including one former Olympian herself.

Connie Polman-Tuin began her track and field career in Powell River and remains in the community. Her story took place at the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympic Games where she competed in the heptathlon. She now coaches Zane alongside her former coach, Scott Glaspey.

Powell River has had a presence at the Olympics before and likely will again. Many of the Canadian athletes we continue to cheer for through our television screens come from small communities like ours and, one day, we could once again be rooting for one of our own.

Success in sports starts from the ground up, on the hockey rinks, baseball fields, judo mats, golf courses and gymnasiums of small centres just like Powell River. The people in these communities play a vital role in making the Olympic dream possible, cheering on their young athletes long before the world ever knows their name.

Powell River has its fair share of rising athletic stars—and if their stars align, anything is possible.