By Louis Daigneault
SPORTSNET.CA
For 15-year-old swimmer Lindsay Seemann, making the Olympic team wasn’t a complete shock. For weeks leading up to the Olympic trials she kept a quiet confidence about potentially qualifying for the team. Even her parents were in the dark about their young daughter’s ambitions.
For 61-year-old equestrian show jumper Ian Millar, you would assume going to the Olympics is now as routine as renewing a driver’s licence. Of course the beauty of great athletes is they make it all look easy. And certainly there’s no shortage of examples in sportsworld that it is those that overcome the challenges that reap the rewards.
Whether it’s a first Olympics or a ninth (in Millar’s case) there is always something magical about participating at the world’s largest sport gathering and wearing your country’s colours.
For a 15-year-old like Seemann, one wonders these days if ‘Olympic Games’ isn’t filed in the category "What my Parents Like" alongside 70’s music and browsing at the bookstore. But at the Olympic swimming trials in Montreal when Seemann stunningly met the time standard in the women’s 200m backstroke, there was no doubt it was the "coolest" moment of her career.
It also wasn’t hard to spot her coach Alan Swanston in a large crowd during that electrifying swim on the last day of the trials. He was the one jumping for joy and being congratulated by his peers after Seemann destroyed the field, winning by almost two seconds. When Seemann appeared at the media mix zone she humorously took a step back when dozens of microphones and pocket digital recorders where aimed at her face.
"I had quietly set in my mind that I was going to try and make the Olympic team," Seemann told Sportsnet.ca from Mexico where she is competing at the world junior championships. "But apart from my coach nobody else had a clue. It was a shock for my parents and I kind of disrupted their summer plans."
"It’s kind of cool to be one of the youngest team members. But it’s something I’ve grown accustomed to the last couple of years on team trips."
Millar has actually been nominated to 10 Olympic teams but didn’t compete at the 1980 Moscow Games which was boycotted by Canada and several other countries to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The show jumping veteran calls his career a "phenomenal journey" and calls representing Canada a thrill and honour everytime out. Nine Olympic appearances ties the international record set by sailor Hubert Raudaschl of Austria.
Millar has not won an Olympic medal in his career but is excited about this year’s team which is deep in experience with world number-four Eric Lamaze, Mac Cone and Jill Henselwood. Canada’s last individual show jumping Olympic medal was in 1976 and the last team gold in 1968. Millar’s best result was a fourth in the team event at the 1984 Games when he rode aboard the legendary Big Ben.
While medals for Millar and Seemann are far from a sure thing, they will certainly provide amazing and inspiring stories to Canadians of all ages for two weeks this August.
