Beginning Tuesday, Quebec hosts the largest women’s volleyball event in its history. The continental championship will feature three teams in the top 11 in the world, including the Americans, who are reigning Olympic champions.
“We’ve never seen such a big women’s volleyball event,” said Organizing Committee President Gilles Lépine, who has always been involved with the community. The Canadian team’s last visit dates back to 1997. Canada also stopped at PEPS in 1981. So that’s twice in 42 years.
The 1997 duel between Canada and Japan took place on October 13, the same day as the traffic accident that killed 44 people in Les Éboulements.
If the Americans, who are currently ranked third in the world, a point behind the Italians, don’t have to worry about their participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics, Canada (11th) for their part will try to get into the top 10 slip in the next few weeks. A tough fight awaits them against the Dominican Republic, who are in 10th place.
“The team is capable of being successful in Quebec,” head coach Shannon Winzer said ahead of Monday’s practice session. This is the beginning of the final Olympic qualification process. It’s a very important tournament for us, worth a lot of points. Every time we play in our region (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean), we want to finish in the top two teams. We finished third last time and want to improve on that result.”
Happy summer season
Winzer is satisfied with the performance of her team since the beginning of the summer. Canada notably secured a National League victory against Brazil as the latter ranked first in the world. “We showed that we can play against the best teams,” she said. I value our chances of doing well this week and the ideal would be to finish first in our group to avoid USA ahead of the finals.
The Canadians play their first game against Mexico on Tuesday at 19:30 CET. Puerto Rico will follow the next day to complete the preliminary phase. The two teams met in a preparatory meeting on Sunday and Canada won in three sets, but Winzer expects much tougher competition on Wednesday.
In Group B, the Americans, who are ranked 3rd in the world, meet the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Costa Rica. Due to a lack of funds, Trinidad-Tobago will not be present in the old capital.
“I’m really looking forward to playing in my backyard,” said striker Vicky Savard, who hails from Jonquière. My family and friends will be present and will have the opportunity to see me. It really is something special.”
The former University of Montreal Carabins color defender injured his foot in the first week of the National League and has made a full recovery. “I took a two-week break as a precautionary measure because I was ready for the tournament in Quebec.”
A long drought since 1996
Canada’s top goal is to end a long drought dating back to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
For the first time since Atlanta, Canada has a real chance of grabbing one of the 12 available spots for the Games of Pais in 2024. Alongside France as the host country and Kenya representing Africa, the top ten teams in the table will be there to get your ticket to the City of Light.
Having traversed the desert, Canada has returned to new colors since the arrival of head coach Shannon Winzer, who took charge in 2021 after leading Australia from 2016 to 2019.
After the continental championship, Canada will take part in its final qualifying tournament in China in September. At the same time, Japan and Poland will also host eight teams and the top two from each of the three tournaments will get their ticket to Paris. Only four places remain, which will be determined next June according to the stages of the National League.