Canadian athletes react to new Tokyo 2021 dates

On the coldest, wettest, hardest days on Elk Lake, rower Hillary Janssens told herself and her numb hands “this is the last winter we have to do this before Tokyo.”

It wasn’t.

The International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo organizing committee announced dates for the rescheduled Olympic and Paralympic Games on Monday, and that had Canadian athletes contemplating what that means for them.

The Summer Olympics will now open July 23, 2021, a year after the originallyscheduled July 24 opening ceremonies. The Paralympics start Aug. 24 a year minus a day later.

An Olympic Games has been rescheduled for the first time in history due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected hundreds of thousands and killed thousands world-wide.

Janssens of Cloverdale, B.C., and her teammate Caileigh Filmer of Victoria won a world title in the women’s pair in 2018 as well as bronze medal at last year’s world championship.

The duo emerged from a gruelling winter on the water feeling ready to race and win in Tokyo.

They’ll now train longer and harder to achieve that goal in 2021.

“This past year, we’re going to have to do again,” Filmer said Monday. “It is tough having to go through another winter. It’s exhausting.

“But my partner Hillary and I can take it on together and we can get through it and do it even better.”

Tokyo felt so close for wrestler Erica Wiebe of Stittsville, Ont., when she qualified for the Games on March 14. The Olympic champion is now wrapping her head around an extra 16 months of preparation.

“I kind of hoped they would happen earlier in 2021,” Wiebe said. “Now, it’s like ‘OK, it’s a full year of waiting.’ The only thing you can do is go back to the drawing board.”