Quinn among dozen women playing in first Games

Making an Olympic team has been Rebecca Quinn’s goal for as long as she can remember. In Grade 1, it was the Toronto native’s answer to a project asking what she wanted to be when she grew up.

While that might not be an unfamiliar answer to elementary school teachers, Quinn’s dream persisted — and on Monday it was realized, when she was included on the Canadian women’s national soccer team roster for this summer’s Rio Games.

“It’s pretty crazy that it’s all happening now,” the 20-year-old said. Getting to this point hasn’t been an easy road for the North Toronto Soccer Club alum, who has played both midfield and defence for the Canadians.

After making her senior team debut in 2014, Quinn was left out of last summer’s Women’s World Cup squad, selected instead as an alternate. She admits it was difficult not to be chosen, but credits much of her development in the last year to what she learned after being dropped from that squad.

“I think I’m definitely a more mature player, a more confident player now,” she said. “It was good to understand my weaknesses.”

Quinn and strikers Nichelle Prince, Janine Beckie and Deanne Rose are the four players selected this time around who weren’t at last summer’s tournament. That group is part of a dozen players going to Rio who have never competed in an Olympics.

Six players return from the squad that won bronze in 2012: strikers Christine Sinclair and Melissa Tancredi, midfielders Diana Matheson, Sophie Schmidt and Desiree Scott, and defender Rhian Wilkinson.

The roster reveal included just 18 players, whittled down from the 20player squad that represented Canada during back-to-back friendlies against Brazil earlier this month.

Forward Gabrielle Carle, 17, and third goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, 20, were the two players left out. They will join defender Marie-Eve Nault and midfielder Kaylyn Kyle as Canada’s four alternates for Rio. Coach John Herdman was frank about the challenges of competing with a young squad but said his current group is more flexible than the team he brought to London. Offence, he said, is still a work in progress.

“From an attacking perspective, I believe we’ve added more pace throughout the team and we’ve added more craft and guile with the inclusion of some of those younger players, adding that to people like Matheson and Sinclair,” he said.

Canada will play No. 5 Australia in its opening game Aug. 3, before facing Zimbabwe, ranked 95th, three days later. Their biggest test comes Aug. 9 when they play secondranked Germany.

Canada’s first two games are “ultraimportant,” Herdman said, adding the Aussies might be the most improved team in the tournament. The goal is not to be in a do-or-die position against Germany.

“The group stage is going to be a challenge,” Herdman said.

“There’s absolutely no room for error.”