Pearson airport transforms into sea of red as Olympic athletes take off to Rio
They've invested years of training and with the start of the summer Olympics less than a week away, many of Canada's athletes touched down in Rio Saturday morning.
More than 150 members of Canada's Olympic delegation, including 74 athletes, boarded a flight from Toronto's Pearson Airport Friday at around 11 p.m, transforming the waiting area into a sea of red.
Swimmer Markus Thormeyer will be competing in his first-ever Olympic games. He told CBC News on Friday that the reality of it all just started to sink in the night before.
"I try not to get overwhelmed by the thoughts of going to the Olympics. And then last night, it kind of just hit me for the first time. I was like, 'Oh my god! I couldn't sleep,' " he said.
Ashton Baumann, son of Olympic gold medallist Alex Baumann, shared that feeling.
"It still hasn't really hit me to be honest… I've just been focused on getting ready," he said. "It's every swimmer's dream so I feel very privileged to have that opportunity."
The athletes flew on a commercial flight to Rio, which came as a surprise to some of the other passengers on the plane.
The Linseman family purchased tickets for their flight more than a year ago, but they had no idea they'd be sharing the same flight as many of the athletes they were going to cheer for.
Jen Kish who plays for the women's rugby team, says she was surprised by the support they got from fans just walking through the airport.
"You have everybody wanting to take pictures and saying, 'Go Canada go! I mean, that's amazing just seeing the support of the nation behind us," Kish said.
Canada has never won an Olympic medal in rugby, something Kish hopes to change when the seven-player-per-side game makes its debut at Rio 2016.
"We're going into the Olympics with a lot of confidence and we can do that because we're top three in the world," she said.
Nevertheless, Kish said: "It is kind of nerve-racking because you're making history."
