Oh Canada, Strong and Three
Posted August 16th, 2008 by Beesley
August 16th may be the day some remember as the anniversary of the passing of the King of rock - but more Canadians were all about celebrating at the Summer games in Beijing. In the span of an hour we collected three medals - a Bronze, Silver and Gold Medal.
Freestyle wrestler Carol Huynh won the women's 48-kilogram final and Canada's first Gold Medal of the games about 20 minutes after rowers Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen finished second in the men's pair to earn the country's first trip to the podium at the Summer Games. Less than a half hour after Huynh's win, fellow wrestler Tonya Verbeek claimed bronze in the 55-kilogram event.
Carol Huynh wiped away tears as O Canada was played after the medal presentation. "I was just thinking how proud I am to be Canadian," Huynh said. "And I was just thinking about the road to how I got here. It's been a long one but a good one."
The road to the podium on Saturday began with ironically the rowers Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen finished second in the men's pair to earn the country's first medal of the games.
Calder, from Victoria, and Frandsen, from Kelowna, B.C., clocked a time of six minutes 39.55 seconds, nearly five seconds ahead of the bronze medallists from New Zealand. The Canadians were about two seconds behind Australia for gold.
"I'm really proud of it and Scott is really proud of it," said Calder. "The Australians had a great push through the middle. We pushed back a little bit but congratulations to them. They definitely deserved that. "We're very happy with a silver medal today."
Completing the run of medals for the day - a bronze medal for 31-year-old wrestler from Beamsville, Ont., Tonya Verbeek who defeated Sweden's Ida-Theres Nerell 2-0 to capture the bronze in the women's 55-kilogram freestyle competition Saturday at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium.
The medal also came four years after Verbeek became the first Canadian woman ever to win an Olympic wrestling medal, taking silver in the same weight class. The veteran wrestler also gave credit to our first gold medalist of the games - "I'm so proud of Carol," Verbeek said. "It's her day."
Tonya Verbeek "wrestling" Canada's 3rd medal of the games!
Oh Canada - Strong and 3 !
