Steve Milton: May the Olympians deliver us from detachment with their marvellous athleticism

Hopefully, the athletes will rescue us, as they always do at the Olympic Games.

And we need rescuing. From Olympic detachment.

By we,' I mean the masses who usually suction-cup ourselves to our screens for a fortnight every two years, Summer Games then Winter Games, living and breathing with sports we never think of after the frenetic festival ends.

But there's a sense of something rare as The Tokyo Olympics kick off. A vague, cynical, suspicious, pandemic-fatigued, disengagement from the noble ideal of the Olympic Games. It was already an ideal rendered increasingly less noble by the realities of the International Olympic Committee, local politics and, of course, money. But the year's delay, and the inconsistencies and frequent hypocrisies around these Games have been extra-alienating.

So, bring on the swimming, the track and field, the basketball, fencing, soccer and skateboarding. Heck, bring on the pistol shooting and dressage. You can always count on elite athletes to try their hardest to give us their absolute best, and beyond, even while the rest of the world won't. We need them to refocus us.

Although I've been to about a dozen Olympics, I'm not in Tokyo and am far less distressed about it than I had anticipated.

The only reason I would want anyone to be there at all is that athletes get this chance only every four years and for the majority it happens only once in their lifetime. Unless you know Olympians or near-Olympians you can't fully grasp how dedicated, resilient and pain resistant they are. Or what this means to them, to their families, and to the teams and organizations they've represented since they were kids.

We can only hope they're safe in Japan, but can anyone really guarantee that? Look how long it took for organizers to make the obvious decision to ban live spectators in an area surging with new infections. Look at the obstinacy of the politically-threatened Japanese government, which will lose multi-billions. Look at the unapologetic, smarmy, IOC insistence that these Games would be held, despite the danger; look at the objections of virtually the entire Japanese medical community.

Every major multi-sport event faces raging local anger and opposition because years of lead-up have all been about pitfalls and the huge financial outlay. Then the Opening Ceremonies happen and most of it melts away, especially as the home country's flag is triumphantly carried in. It's an unbelievable in-stadium experience and the unique thunder it triggers translates itself into the broadcast. Happened in Vancouver, happened in Sochi, happened in Albertville, happened at Toronto's Pan Am Games. Even televised from another country the sight of the fluttering Maple Leaf and hundreds of athletes marching behind it, can bring a tear to most Canadians' eyes.

But this time, an empty stadium, and because of competition schedules and arrival quarantines, only three dozen or so Canadian athletes. Like pro sport during lockdowns it's a reminder as much of what we don't have as of what we do.

But live competition, with the world's best going head-to-head in disciplined desperation, will make it seem more normal, even if the start times are so early they make dedicated viewing awkward. A race at any age or talent level is intriguing, but at the Olympics it's magical. On the track, on the road, in the water, on the water. Team games, individual routines, all types of sporting events, are enhanced exponentially by Olympic competition. That, plus a youthful international camaraderie most of us never get to see, are about the only real ideals" left. But they're huge, worthwhile, ones. As a group, the IOC can't even spell ideal.'

Canada is an Olympic force, and has been since 2010, targeting a respectable 20 medals or so in Tokyo. Hamilton's Kia Nurse and coach Lisa Thomaidis could be on the women's basketball podium, Waterdown's beach volleyballer Heather Bansley has been mentioned as a possible medal contender, as have fencer Eleanor Harvey and local golfers Mackenzie Hughes and Alena Sharp.

Outside the competitive arena, the Rio 2016 Games were an utter mess and have left virtually no positive legacy, and Sochi 2014 was the same. But in both cases so many of the athletic achievements were stunning and memorable.

For sure we'll get the same stubborn you-won't-wreck-this-for-us performances from the athletes in Tokyo. Close-focus TV and streaming will hopefully make the marvellous athleticism all we think about.

And spectators, none of whom will be there, need that to draw us back in.

Too many things are pushing us away: the time warp of the 2020 Games held in the second half of 2021; the horrible contrast of the Olympics finally approaching equality in participation of the sexes set against the multiple resignations and firings of key Games organizers over sexism or racism; the spectre of the Winter Games looming just seven months away; the 13-hour time difference, which makes prime time broadcast in eastern North American more of a prescripted show. It's the second straight Olympics (Pyeongchang) to have that with a third (Beijing) on the near-horizon.

Add to that the IOC, governments and, most of all, the pandemic.

It's a lot to ask from athletes who've had to struggle for training space, time, and peace of mind, while facing the same overarching pandemic anxieties as the rest of us.

But the athletes, no matter the generation, always seem to deliver.

LOCAL ATHLETES AT THE TOKYO 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES

(Broadcast on CBC and NBC and their streaming platforms)

Fencing: Eleanor Harvey (Hamilton)

Competition begins Sunday, July 25 (Saturday night, eastern time)

Harvey's seventh-place finish in the individual foil at Rio 2016 was Canada's best-ever finish in an Olympic individual fencing event. She beat the world's top-ranked fencer along the way. In 2015, she helped Canada win the Pan Am gold medal in team foil and she won an individual bronze medal at the 2019 Pan Am Games. She was also the first Canadian woman to win a Grand Prix foil event (2018).

Sailing: Will Jones (Jerseyville) and Evan DePaul (Burlington)

Racing begins Tuesday, July 27

Jones is the skip, DePaul the crew on Canada's best, by far, team in the 49ers, a two-person skiff class. It's their first Olympics in a sport in which having multi-Games experience is a common factor among the very top teams. Jones and DePaul are the first Royal Hamilton Yacht Club Olympians since 2000, and first joined forces in the club's youth development program six years ago. They've already met the two major goals they set a couple of years ago: to qualify for their first Olympics, and to improve dramatically at the 2020 world championships where they finished 39th, 22 places better than the previous year. They have also set a goal for 2024: Olympic gold.

Women's basketball: Kia Nurse (Hamilton)

Competition opens Monday, July 26

Nurse needs no introduction in Hamilton, in Canada, or in the basketball world. She has been representing Canada since she was 15, led Canada in scoring at the 2015 Pan Am Games, dropping a stunning 33 points in the gold medal upset over the U.S. She was a star of the 2016 Olympic team, won two NCAA titles at Connecticut and was U.S. college defensive player of the year. With the New York Liberty she has been a WBNA all-star, now plays for the Phoenix Mercury and won two league titles in Australia's pro league. Nurse has become a national role model for young female athletes.

Women's Basketball: Lisa Thomaidis (Dundas)

Competition opens Monday, July 26

The former McMaster and Greek pro league star has been coaching women's basketball at the University of Saskatchewan since 1998 and has led the Huskies to multiple conference titles and the 2016 and 2020 national championship. She was an assistant coach for Team Canada from 2002 to 2013, including its strong showing at the London 2012 Games, and in 2013 took over from Allison McNeill as head coach. Her national team finished fifth at the 2014 Worlds, won the 2015 Pan Am Games gold and were seventh at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Rowing: Luke Gadsdon (Hamilton)

Heats begin Saturday, July 24 (Friday night, eastern time)

Gadsdon is an integral part of the impressive story of the Canada's men's fours, which had never competed together except in intra-squad races at the domestic training centre in B.C. but earned a berth in Tokyo with a second-place finish at May's last-chance Olympic qualifier in Lucerne. They finished ahead of favoured France to win their spot in Tokyo. The Leander Rowing Club member teams up with Jakub Buczek, Gavin Stone and Will Crothers in the men's four. He took up the sport as a Westdale freshman and was inspired to row by Canada's 2012 silver medal heavy eights and rowed three years for Brock University. He was sixth in men's fours at the 2016 World University Championships.

Golf: Alena Sharp (Hamilton)

First Round, Wednesday, Aug. 4 (Tuesday evening eastern time)

Sharp has been on the LPGA Tour for 16 years and qualified for her second Olympics after finishing 30th in 2016. She rejoins Brooke Henderson on this year's women's Olympic team. Sharp has 14 top-10 finishes on tour and has made close to $3 million in career earnings. She had strong 2019 and 2020 campaigns and after a slow start earlier this season, had made changes to her putting and mental approach to the game. She feels her experience in Rio will be invaluable as she joins Henderson again in Rio. Two weeks ago at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, Sharp shot 64 in the second round and 65 in the fourth.

Golf: Mackenzie Hughes (Dundas)

First round begins Thursday July 29 (Wednesday evening eastern time)

Hughes is coming off the best result ever by a Canadian at The (British) Open, where he finished sixth. He was also in contention into early in the final round of The U.S. Open. He won his first PGA Tour title at the RSM Classic in 2017, making him the first rookie to lead a tournament from start to finish in 20 years. Twice he's been the top Canadian finisher at the Canadian Open, and as an amateur won back-to-back Canadian amateur titles. He's won $1.7 million on tour this year, more than a third of which have come in three Majors (The Open, U.S. Open, Three Masters). Hughes and his Kent State teammate and close friend Corey Conners give Canada a formidable 1-2 punch in Tokyo.

Beach Volleyball: Heather Bansley (Waterdown)

Competition begins Saturday, July 24.

Tokyo will be the second Olympics for Bansley, but first with teammate Brandie Wilkerson. Bansley finished fifth in Rio with former teammate Sarah Pavan, matching Canada's best finish in Olympic women's beach volleyball. In 2018 she and Wilkerson had six World Tour podium finishes, three of them golds, in 2018 and won two more Tour medals in 2019. A strong defensive player, Bansley was also the top scorer in the 2015 Major Series season. Although she had a long competitive layoff during the pandemic, Bansley and Wilkerson are considered medal contenders for Tokyo.

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com

Also competing:

Natalie Achonwa, Nurse's teammate on the women's basketball team and a star with Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA, spent her final three years of high school at St. Mary in Hamilton, as part of the now-defunct National Elite Development Program; men's Olymic vollyeball team members Stephen Maar and TJ Sanders were core players with the McMaster Marauders. (The men begin volleyball matches Saturday morning) Radial Laser sailor Sarah Douglas, who begins competing late Saturday night, was born in Burlington but grew up in Toronto and Barbados; and women's wrestling coach Tonya Verbeek is from Beamsville.