Playing the Long Game by Christine Sinclair with Stephen Brunt

Author:Christine Sinclair with Stephen Brunt [Sinclair, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2022-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

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The women’s Olympic soccer tournament always begins before the rest of the competitions, which is why we never march in the opening ceremonies. And in London, unless we made it to the gold medal final in Wembley Stadium, none of our matches would be in the city, so we weren’t going to spend much time in the main Olympic Village either. John made a point of getting us to England early so that we could at least experience the village.

After we landed in London, we got on our bus and it immediately got lost. We had been driving for forty-five minutes before we noticed that we were passing the airport again. You’d think the driver might have figured out the route from the airport to the Olympic Village in advance. But other than that, the experience was great. We checked into the village and stayed in the Canada building for a couple of days. We got our team gear, which is always fun, as well as an important first taste of the Olympics.

We were like tourists on crack, trying to cram in as much as we could. The Olympic Village has unique things to offer. You’ve got to hit up the store, because everyone back home wants souvenirs. The experience of the food hall is just wild. There are so many people of so many different nationalities, and so many different cuisines on offer (plus, for some reason, always McDonald’s). For a lot of us, it was our first time in London. We went to see the Changing of the Guard, we rode the London Eye, we went to London Bridge. We saw a performance of The Lion King in the West End. That was all in one day. We took the tube everywhere and just soaked it all in. Afterwards, we needed a vacation from our day of vacation.

But that was pretty much it for London. We spent most of the rest of the Games in Coventry—we joked that it was really the Coventry Olympics. Our first two games were there, our quarterfinal game was there, and the bronze medal match was there.

We watched the opening ceremonies on television in our hotel in Coventry. The organizers did try to make the place a little like the athletes’ village. Some of the men’s soccer teams were staying there, too, and the Olympic Committee set up a viewing party for us. We marched in and pretended we were part of it. Cheesy, but fun.

I always get anxious the night before our first match and tend not to sleep well. I have full trust in our team—it’s just tournament nerves. There’s nothing that makes it easier: not confidence, not experience, nothing. But along with the rest of the team, I felt a sense of belief and purpose. A sense of being prepared. A sense of being ready. I knew we’d put in the work and that there was nothing we’d left undone. There was a sense of togetherness on our team.

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