Canada's Maggie Mac Neil swims to a bronze medal in the women's 4 x 100m medley relay final during the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, in Tokyo on Aug. 1, 2021.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Damian Warner sat in a press room in Tokyo talking about the sense of “community” in his hometown of London, Ont., and the warm, small-town feel he gets from the mid-size city where he still trains for the world’s toughest competitions.
When the 31-year-old returns to London in the coming days with his decathlon gold medal, he won’t be the only Olympic champion the city welcomes home.
Opinion: Damian Warner wins gold in men’s decathlon at Tokyo, sets Olympic record
London-born athletes won or were part of four of Canada’s six gold medals heading into the final weekend of competition at the Tokyo Games.
Swimmer Maggie Mac Neil’s gold in the 100-metre butterfly kicked things off last week, and the championship run continued days later when rower Susanne Grainger took first place as part of the women’s eight team. Soccer players Jessie Fleming and Shelina Zadorsky added to London’s gold medal haul Friday when Canada beat Sweden in the women’s final.
“We’ve had a lot of success and there’s a lot of great athletes in London that are at these Games,” Warner said Friday in a virtual call with media roughly 24 hours after his decathlon championship. “But [there’s also] a lot of great athletes that are up-and-coming that will be at future Games and I’m sure winning medals for London and for Canada.
“It’s just a great city and it’s somewhere I’m happy to call home.”
“If we needed something, somebody stepped up and helped us,” he added.
Andrew Craven, a former swimming coach of Mac Neil’s at the London Aquatics Club, said it was thrilling to see so much high-level talent from London at the Tokyo Games, and not just in the pool.
He said performances such as Warner’s and Fleming’s – the 23-year-old scored Canada’s tying goal in the soccer final and added another in the penalty kicks en route to victory – will help inspire a new crop of London athletes.