Edmonton-based Canadian swim team president eyes podium at Olympic Games in Rio
Forty years since winning a silver medal at the Olympic Games, Edmonton's Cheryl Gibson is hoping some of the athletes on Canada's current swim team follow her footsteps to the podium.
Gibson, now a tax lawyer, is the president of Swimming Canada, which selects the athletes who will represent the country in Rio.
"We're really hopeful," said Gibson, describing Canada's swim team as a great crop of young athletes who have a lot of potential.
But while Gibson expects many of the youngsters who cracked the team to hit their peak in 2020, she's not ruling out medals in Rio.
"We're going to have athletes in the final. We have a very strong team of athletes who are going to be in the top eight," Gibson said.
"Whether they're going to make it onto the podium, it's hard to say."
She said having competed at the highest levels of the sport, she knows exactly what the athletes are going through and what they need to swim their best at Rio 2016.
She sees a number of parallels in these games and the 1976 games she medalled in.
"Every Olympics has these sorts of issues," said Gibson, referring to the Zika virus outbreak, security concerns and the Russian doping scandal.
State-sponsored doping program
While thrilled to win a silver in Montreal, many believe Gibson deserved the gold given the athlete who finished ahead of her was from East Germany.
The East German team was later tainted by the revelation of a state-sponsored doping program.
"I know the East German women swimmers have received compensation from the German government and from drug companies, but nobody has returned a medal," said Gibson, adding she had suspicions at the time.
But 40 years later, she doubts anything will ever happen unless the swimmer who won gold decides to give the medal back.
Gibson added it's unlikely the Canadian swimmers who have with the best chances to medal will be up against Russian athletes in their events, but says drug use remains a big problem today.
"It's always a concern, nobody wants to have athletes there who are doping," she said.
'Some are going to rise to the occasion'
The Swimming Canada boss is reluctant to put pressure on any of the 27 athletes in Canada's swim team, but says there are a couple of names to watch for.
She's impressed with Ryan Cochrane, who's already won an Olympic silver and bronze and has the kind of tried-and-tested experience to make it to the podium again.
Santo Condorelli is another she said could do well in Rio, as well as a few of the swim relay teams.
Penny Oleksiak, who's just 16 but already a Canadian record holder, is also someone she has high hopes for.
"She's come onto the scene so quickly, I think people have very high expectations of her but perhaps they have expectations that are beyond her years a little bit at this point," Gibson said.
Still she said she wouldn't be surprised to see Oleksiak do well, pointing out that anything can happen in the Olympics.
"Some of them are going to rise to the occasion and for some people it's going to be crushing."
