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Carol Huynh,Hazelton, B.C
Gold, Freestyle Wrestling, 48 kg
CB radios all over Hazleton, B.C., crackled late last Friday with the news that Carol Huynh would be grappling for gold early the next morning. By 2 a.m., "the whole town was up watching Carol," says Mayor Alice Maitland, seen at right photographed with the Olympian before her departure for China.
Ms. Huynh's hometown roots drew a lot of attention when she became Canada's first gold-medal winner. But over the past two weeks, similar scenes of witching-hour revelry have played out in countless small-town living rooms across the country.
Although Canada is highly urbanized - 80 per cent of us now live in cities, according to Statistics Canada - it was rural-born athletes who bailed out the nation's medal count. Of the 30 Canadian medalists as of Thursday, 13 hailed from towns of under 25,000 people.
It's not supposed be this way, of course. Cities have the best facilities, the best coaches and the biggest talent pools.
Ironically, the very things some people hate about growing up in small towns - a lack of options, insularity, everyone knowing your business - can be a boon to athletes, according to Doug Ramsey, editor of the Journal of Community and Rural Development and a professor at Brandon University.
"You're never lost in the shuffle," Mr. Ramsey says. "When your grad class is six or 10 people, you're going to be recognized early on for something, whether it be sports or arts."
Iain Brambell, Brentwood Bay, B.C.
Bronze, Lightweight Men's Four Rowing
Nestled close to the rowing hotbed of Victoria and directly across Saanich Inlet from Brentwood College, home to the country's premier high-school rowing program, few places could be better situated for aspiring young rowers. No surprise then that Mr. Brambell (seen here, on the left, with teammate Jon Beare) started rowing in high school and has been a fixture of national teams for a decade.
"Brentwood Bay is situated at the bottom of the hill, so we always had to run or hop on a bike to get anywhere," says Mr. Brambell.
"It definitely made us more geared towards physical activity." He adds: "After our semi-finals, emails started flooding in from people I knew back there."
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Karen Cockburn, Stouffville, Ont.
Silver, Trampoline
Born in Toronto, Ms. Cockburn now counts herself among the 25,000 people of Whitchurch-Stouffville, where she moved recently with her husband, in part to be closer to her gym.
"She was training twice a day leading up to the games and didn't want to fight traffic," says Helen Saari, program coordinator at the gym, Skyriders Trampoline Place in nearby Richmond Hill, where men's-trampoline silver medalist Jason Burnett also trains. At the 2000 Olympics, at age 19, Ms. Cockburn (seen at left in Beijing) became the first woman to represent Canada in trampoline.
"She's one of those people who gives back to the sport," says Ms. Saari. "She talks to the up-and-coming athletes. You should hear the younger kids talk about her - they gush. One of our younger athletes blew her knee, so she and Karen have become kindred spirits. They email back and forth all the time. She's that kind of person."
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Brian Price, Ameliasburgh, Ont.; Ben Rutledge, Cranbrook, B.C.; Kevin Light, Sidney, B.C.
Gold, Men's Eight Rowing
At the Salvation Army Church in Belleville, Ont., parishioners cheered Sunday with the news that local boy Brian Price (furthest right) had won a gold medal. One churchgoer even presented mock gold medals to children after reading them a story. The elation was comparable on the West Coast in Cranbrook: "Rutledge and Crew are Golden," screamed the front-page headline in the Cranbrook Daily Townsmen. In Sidney, situated 15 minutes from the national rowing centre on Elk Lake, the local paper toasted the entire team.
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Mac Cone, King City, Ont.; Eric Lamaze, Schomberg, Ont.; Jill Henselwood, Oxford Mills, Ont.; Ian Millar, Perth, Ont.
Silver, Team Equestrian; Gold, Individual Equestrian (Lamaze)
When Mayor Margaret Black opened a council meeting Monday night by congratulating King Township's three medalists (Mr. Bennett, Mr. Lamaze and Mr. Cone), a room full of residents livid over a power development was momentarily moved to applause. Ms. Black plans to celebrate the medal haul with a reception in mid-October.
In Perth, where a bronze statue of Ian Millar and his old horse Big Ben stands, posters went up ahead of the Games calling for locals to support the 6,000-person town's Olympians. At the feed store in Oxford Mills, residents all signed a banner and sent it off to Beijing with a local vet.
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Tracy Cameron, Shubenacadie, N.S.
Bronze, Lightweight Double Sculls Rowing
At 4 a.m. on a stormy Sunday, one-fifth of the people in Shubenacadie, N.S., crammed into Pearl Cameron's living room. Lightning rattled the windows as they watched Tracy Cameron - whom many knew as the little Shubie girl who used to sing in the junior choir at the United Church - matching bows with teams from the Netherlands, Finland and Germany. When she crossed the line in third place, the whole town went nuts.
Shubenacadie, best-known until that moment for a groundhog named Sam, was now hometown to an Olympic medalist (seen here, right, with teammate Melanie Kok). "Everywhere you go, Tracy is all people are talking about," said her grandmother a few days later. "She put us on the map."
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Jason Burnett, Nobleton, Ont.
Silver, Trampoline
Mr. Burnett now calls Etobicoke home, but he grew up in Nobleton. Helen Saari, program coordinator at Skyriders Trampoline Place, where he trains, says that Mr. Burnett has a nickname - Tramp Man. "He's psycho. He willing to try anything. He's a spinning top. He loves the gym. He won't get off the trampoline. To call him a daredevil would be an understatement. He's the Evel Kneivel of trampoline," she says.
The surrounding King Township is known for jumping, horses and the combination of the two. Rosannagh MacLennan from nearby King City finished seventh in the women's-trampoline event. Another Nobleton trampolinist, Kailey McCleod, is blazing her way up the junior rankings.
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Tonya Verbeek, Beamsville, Ont.
Bronze, Freestyle Wrestling, 55 kg
Road signs in support of Ms. Verbeek were erected weeks ago all over this town not far from Hamilton, according to Joanne Verbeek, her sister-in-law. The most prominent - "Hometown Hero" - sits outside the Lion's Hall, where the people of Beamsville held a big send-off party before Ms. Verbeek flew to Beijing.
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Sea-to-sea victories
OLYMPIANS' HOMETOWNS FROM COAST TO COAST
- Carol Huynh, Hazelton, B.C.
- Kyle Hamilton, Richmond, B.C.
- Iain Brambell, Brentwood Bay, B.C.
- Simon Whitfield, Victoria
- Ryan Cochrane, Victoria
- Dave Calder, Victoria
- Mike Lewis, Victoria
- Dominic Sieterle, Victoria
- Malcolm Howard, Victoria
- Kevin Light, Sydney, B.C.
- Scott Frandsen, Kelowna, B.C.
- Ben Rutledge, Cranbrook, B.C.
- Jake Wetzel, Saskatoon
- Liam Parsons, Thunder Bay, Ont.
- Adam Kreek, London, Ont.
- Adam Van Koeverden, Oakville, Ont.
- Tonya Verbeek, Beamsville, Ont.
- Melanie Kok, St. Catharines, Ont.
- Jon Beare, Toronto
- Andrew Byrnes, Toronto
- Jason Burnett, Nobleton, Ont.
- Mac Cone, King City, Ont.
- Eric Lamaze, Schomberg, Ont.
- Karen Cockburn, Stouffville, Ont.
- Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, Whitby, Ont.
- Brian Price, Ameliasburgh, Ont.
- Ian Millar, Perth, Ont.
- Jill Henselwood, Oxford Mills, Ont.
- Alexandre Despatie, Laval, Que.
- Emilie Heymans, St-Lambert, Que
- Tracy Cameron, Shubenacadie, N.S.
