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<\/a>\u201cWhen the Olympics were postponed I decided to take a summer course and I really enjoyed it so I decided to continue with it in the fall,\u201d says Greenshields. \u201cI really value education and I thought I should get back on track so that I\u2019ve got a plan for when I retire from rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenshields says that throughout her rugby career, she’s always enjoyed the strength and conditioning aspect of the game and sees her education opening doors as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to become a strength and conditioning coach, perhaps for another rugby team in the future as rugby continues to grow and develop on the island,\u201d says Greenshields. \u201cI\u2019d love to work with youth athletes and help develop their rugby game.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Buisa, she and her teammates come from all over Canada but all live here in Victoria to train five days a week in preparation to compete on the world stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super excited,\u201d says Buisa. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a dream of mine since I was a kid. I\u2019ve always wanted this and to see that it\u2019s finally a reality is such an honour. I\u2019m just so proud of my team, and my coaching staff, and the community I\u2019m immersed in. I\u2019ve received so much support. Now I\u2019m eager to play and show the world what we got\u2014show what we\u2019ve been working for the past five years now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenshields says that being named to the Olympic team is a huge honour, but stresses that she is in Japan to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently ranked third,\u201d says Greenshields. \u201cAt the last Olympics, back in 2016, we took bronze. Before the COVID pandemic cleared our schedule, and took our ability to train and compete internationally, we were doing really well on the world series tours with silvers and bronze. I have all the confidence in the world that we can take gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Equally optimistic about Team Canada\u2019s prospects, Buisa says that on the field this will look like any other tournament, but considering the historical significance there will be so many people watching around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know they worked so hard just to allow the games to be safe,\u201d says Buisa. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be cool to see it all come together. I think it\u2019s going to be very interesting because there aren\u2019t going to be any crowds. It\u2019s definitely going to be a different feel but I know that I\u2019ll be able to feel all the positive vibes coming from the family and community back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tokyo Olympics will be a unique experience for fans and athletes alike because of the strict COVID safety protocols.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter we play we have to come back home to Canada,\u201d Buisa says. \u201cWe won\u2019t have the full Olympic experience. Typically it\u2019s like a month you can stay in the Olympic village but once we\u2019re finished playing we actually have to leave the village. Basically we go to work and then come back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The women’s rugby tournament gets underway on Wednesday, July 28 as Canada faces off against Brazil in the pool round; the gold medal match takes place on Saturday, July 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those who don\u2019t know, rugby sevens games are only 14 minutes long,\u201d says Greenshields. \u201cIt\u2019s seven versus seven for two seven-minute halves. It\u2019s upbeat, it\u2019s exciting, there\u2019s big hits, there\u2019s lots of speed. You can\u2019t blink or you\u2019ll miss something. I strongly encourage everyone to tune in to these games because it\u2019s going to be really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
For better or for worse, people will be talking about these Olympic games for decades to come. Buisa says that the games are being played in a very difficult time and she\u2019s honoured to be a part of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point of the games is to bring people together and bring pride, honour, and camaraderie, and that\u2019s really important right now,\u201d says Buisa. \u201cBoth my parents are from the Democratic Republic of Congo and they have sacrificed a lot for me to be here. Now I\u2019m able to elevate my community and we can all say that we did it, because it\u2019s a community success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tokyo Olympics are now underway, and there’s a Camosun College connection to the games. Canada has sent 370 athletes to try to improve upon the 22 medals that were brought home from the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and among Canada\u2019s medal favourites are the women\u2019s rugby sevens team, who call Victoria […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,8,9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-sports","category-sports","category-webexclusive","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21318,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315\/revisions\/21318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}