Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team arrived home from the Paris Olympics as one of the most inspirational stories of the summer Games.
The team’s silver-medal run saw them play valiantly against rugby powerhouses including Fiji, Australia, and France, before eventually falling to the Black Ferns of New Zealand in the finals. “I’m so proud,” says assistant coach Jocelyn Barrieau, who has family in Elgin. “I still get choked up about it,” she admits. “So many people from across the world and our country probably saw rugby for one of the first times, and they did such a great job representing all of us.”
This was Barrieau’s first experience behind the bench on the Olympic stage. She admits she was always a bit skeptical watching interviews with athletes thanking those back home for their support, but says she was flooded with such messages. “It was such a special thing, and you definitely feel it when you are over there!” she exclaims. “The Canadian contingent that came to cheer us on was also really special,” she adds, noting her partner, Hughanna Gaw, was in the stands for all their games.
To prepare for the Olympics, the team travelled to a staging camp in Auxerre, France. “We got to stay and have that French cultural experience in a small town outside of Paris,” she explained.
The men’s competition started before the women’s, and Barrieau says they were fortunate to have watched the men from France play before learning they would be facing the French women in the quarter-finals. It was helpful “having been in the stadium and hearing the noise and the cheering, and seeing just how passionate French rugby fans were,” she says. “We started talking about the possibility of quieting the crowd.” And when the Canadians scored with only seconds left in their game, the crowd did indeed fall silent.
Building a community
On September 1, Barrieau will take over as head coach of the women’s sevens team. She admits that the Olympics were a huge peak for the team, and there will be work to do as they look forward to world series matches in Dubai and Cape Town before the end of the year.
She hopes the visibility in Paris will translate into an increased fan base and more financial support. “My biggest dream would be for them to become household names,” she says of the Rugby Canada roster.
“We are very fortunate,” she says of her players. “So many of them come from different sports. We have gymnasts, hockey players, basketball players, soccer players, even dancers … They are such a diverse group, and they have such great stories to tell,” she explains.
She admits it would also be great if the team’s success also sparked a surge in new players discovering rugby and accessing the exceptional community the surrounds the sport. “People in the Valley are so connected because they need to rely on each other to live. People lean on one another, and that is something I also see in rugby,” says Barrieau, while highlighting some of the values and sense of community that make the sport so unique.
“I’m just so proud that our sport was on display, and that our team lived our values so brilliantly,” she says.