Technology truly is a wonderful thing

Thirty-two years ago, when I was working at the pin trading tent at the ’92 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, you had only a few ways to find out how Team Canada was performing. Obviously if you were lucky enough to get a ticket to an event that happened to have a Team Canada athlete competing, you could see it live. You could read about it the next day in the only English-language newspaper to be found – The International Herald-Tribune. You could catch a glimpse of an event on Spanish television, if a Canadian was involved. Or you could bump into someone on the street with a red maple leaf somewhere on their person who could fill you in on some Team Canada news you were unaware of. That was pretty much it.

Fast forward to 2024. My options for staying up to speed are practically endless.

Last night, Allison and I attended Team Canada’s first game in the men’s volleyball competition against Slovenia, which they unfortunately lost three games to one. The game took place at Arena Paris Sud, about 30 minutes south of our apartment on the Metro. I had never seen volleyball at this level before. The movement of the ball off the serve is incredible. Not only is it moving at speeds over 100 km/h, but the ball seems to float right or left or down by over a foot as it crosses the net. All four games were close, and our men played very well.

(And volleyball live is fun. They have different cheers for “monster blocks,” aces off the serve, and “super spikes.” Music is played in between each point, and in between each game, breakdancers come out and do their thing.)

Right around the same time as the game started, Canadian fencer Eleanor Harvey was competing for Canada’s first-ever fencing medal. She had lost her semi-final earlier that afternoon and was competing for bronze at the exact same time the men’s volleyball game was getting underway. No problem. Pull out the iPhone, hit the CBC Sports app, hit the live feed, and watch Harvey win the bronze during timeouts at a men’s volleyball game.

(This win is incredibly special for all of us at the Canadian Sport Institute (CSI) Alberta, where Harvey has called home for the last three years. She is one of a few fencers that train with us and I couldn’t be prouder of her and the entire CSI Alberta team.)

Walking out of the Arena, I had said to Allison that it didn’t look good for our women’s soccer team, last time I checked. While that crew had a gutsy win over New Zealand in spite being completely let down by pretty much everyone around them in the days previous – coaches, administration, everyone – it looked like their Games were coming to an end with a 1-1 draw against France. This is after FIFA had deducted them an unheard of six points in this tournament because of drone idiocy by their coaches, which had nothing to do with the players. But I digress.

A quick check of the phone as we were walking into an Italian café for a very late dinner revealed that Vanessa Gilles had scored the winning goal with minutes left in extra time to give Canada the 2-1 win. And when I got back to the apartment later that night, I was able to watch the five-minute highlight package on my laptop.

It's impossible to see everything at the Olympics, as you can’t be everywhere at once. To say technology has changed the game, would be an understatement. Yesterday’s late news has also changed our plans. Allison and I will now be making our way back to Canada Olympic House earlier than planned, to catch the final round-robin game for Team Canada’s women’s soccer team against Columbia on Wednesday night. The game is in Nice, about 10 hours south of here, so catching it live is not going to happen. Instead, thanks to technology, we’ll catch it live on the CBC feed in Paris with hundreds of other Canadians.

I’m up relatively early today, as I’ve been given an unbelievable opportunity to visit the Athlete Village with some of my counterparts from the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sports Institute Network (COPSIN). It’s located in the north part of Paris, close to the Stade de France. We’re getting a tour, get to see where our Canadian athletes are located, and will then have lunch in the dining hall.

Allison is on her own for the afternoon, before we meet up later for dinner and then head back to the Stade de France tonight, to cheer on Team Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team. Summer McIntosh is scheduled to compete later tonight as well for gold in the women’s 400-metre individual medley, while we’re watching rugby. Thank God for technology.

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Don't forget over the next few weeks to support our Alberta-based athletes by participating in our 50/50 draw – now sitting approaching $20,000 –?which you can find at

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