“I want to go to the Olympics!”
The number of kids who uttered those words after seeing their heroes compete at the Paris 2024 Games is incalculable. For countless young aspiring athletes, watching the Olympics ignites a spark to be their best and chase their dreams.
Of course, not many get to live that dream, but when a 12-year-old Kate Miller said her goal was to make it to the Olympics, there was such confidence and conviction in the statement that you just couldn’t help but believe it was no pipe dream for her. And if you saw her dive, for sure it was evident there was something special in the making.
Now, even Kate didn’t entirely imagine that she’d qualify for the Olympics while she was still a teenager until the moment it became reality.
And at age 12, she probably didn’t foresee all the dedication and sacrifices needed on the road ahead, which included moving away from home just a few years later to pursue her sport.
“It was really hard for me,” Kate reflected in a pre-Games interview with the Ottawa Sports Pages. “But, moving away was a good decision for my diving. So, I’m happy I did do that because without it, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”
Kate is one of the many local Olympians the Sports Pages has had the pleasure of following since the early days when they first began making their mark in sport. We looked back, and Kate does own the distinction of being the youngest out of our team of 18 Ottawa Olympians who made it into the Sports Pages’ news.
She earned her first mention in a results recap at age 10 and her first feature at age 11 when she set a new national age group record in the 3-metre springboard event (despite losing nearly 15 points for balking on her first dive).
“I was really happy because it means that everyone thought that I did really well and that everyone was proud of me,” glowed cute-as-can-be Kate. “And I was proud of myself that I did really good at this competition.”
Eight years later, Kate was proud of her performance in Paris too, even through the sting of finishing fourth and oh-so-close to the podium.
That was one of the great moments we highlighted during our daily Ottawa at the Olympics coverage, which has received a pile of positive feedback (thank you, dear readers!) With that in the books, we are now wrapping up our Ottawa Sports Pages Fund Campaign to support local sports journalism as well.
Unfortunately really, the daily in-depth reports we produced on our local Olympians simply can’t be found in other media outlets. Even under the bright lights of the pinnacle global sports stage, there is little attention shone on most of our Ottawa athletes.
If you’re like us and you believe these inspirational members of our community deserve recognition for all their efforts, we’d love to have your support for our local independent media publication that’s committed to sharing their stories.
We are definitely motivated to report on these peak moments of these amateur athletes’ careers during the Olympics, but even more, we want to be there to cover their journeys on the way up.
So as we ask you to consider helping us to enable that storytelling, we also want to give you a little treat and look back on some earlier moments when our local 2024 Olympic team made headlines in the Ottawa Sports Pages (you can click on the images to read those past stories):
Jessica Gaudreault makes whirlwind trip from youth water polo worlds to Indiana University residence
Eric Peters tried something different, then stuck with sport to reach archery youth worlds
Marial Shayok stars for St. Patrick Irish team with humble roots, unmatched community spirit
Former tennis player Vanessa Gilles took up soccer at age 15 in high school, now on senior national team
Lauren Gale makes international debut with track friend at Commonwealth Youth Games
Ariane Bonhomme struggles to find her way in transition from junior to women’s cycling
No fear for Regan Rathwell matching up against Canada’s best at age 15
‘Now I’m ready for the big leagues’ says Sam Zakutney after third straight national youth title
Before becoming Canada’s first female grand slam champ, Gaby Dabrowski showed fire when she fought to U14 provincial final at age 10
Future Olympian Natalie Davison was under the radar when she made Canada Games appearance at age 20
16-year-old Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka wins 5 national gold to power Rideau Canoe Club’s national crown
Derek Gee on track to make Olympic debut alongside world-class Ottawa speed skater
Eliezer Adjibi transforms from soccer player to a U20 national sprint medallist
Trailblazing Lois Betteridge aiming for spot in women’s canoe Olympic debut
With broken foot and broken running dreams, Mike Woods finds new life in cycling
Soccer defender Jacqueline Madogo emerges as sprinting sensation with Olympic aspirations
Julie Brousseau etches her name into history books with breakout Canada Games swims
That last story on Julie Brousseau from the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games is a particularly poignant example of the crucial role the Ottawa Sports Pages plays in highlighting amateur sport.
OSP executive director Dan Plouffe was the only journalist there to interview Julie on the pool deck after her record-setting performance, and without his inquiries to the Canada Games Council communications team about a missing medal in their results system, it’s possible that little piece of national history may not have been known outside of the Brousseau family trophy case.
“That was definitely the beginning for me,” Julie recalled in a pre-Paris interview with the Sports Pages, noting that after the Canada Games, she made her first junior national team and began to climb the national rankings.
On the same day as Julie’s emergence, we also highlighted a young champion wrestler’s challenging experience wearing a hijab on the mats, and another who won gold a day after dislocating his shoulder.
The Canada Games are another time when we produce a daily newsletter to showcase young athletes’ efforts and achievements, and that’s the type of storytelling you’re supporting when you donate to the Ottawa Sports Pages Fund. All online contributions are eligible for a tax-deductible charitable donation receipt.
We’ll also have daily Ottawa at the Paralympics coverage in two weeks’ time, though we’ll bring you our regular Saturday newsletters in between. If you’re a new subscriber who just joined us during the Olympics, then we hope you’ll also enjoy our stories on the local sports scene from the grassroots level on up – where we may just discover that next Olympic star-in-the-making.