PARIS – Canadian sports fans in Paris are using words like “embarrassing” and “disappointing” to describe a drone spying scandal that has rocked Canada Soccer in the early days of the Olympic Games.
Jennifer McComb showed up Sunday to visit Canada House, dressed in a red maple leaf t-shirt. McComb, from Montreal, feels the actions of team management and coaching staff have cast a shadow over the early days of the Games.
“The main initial feeling for me was just embarrassment,” she said Sunday outside Canada House in Paris. “It doesn’t represent who we are as a country and I thought that was really unfortunate.”
But she and her friend Tara Mitrovka both disagree with the decision by soccer’s governing body to strip points from the defending gold medal Olympic women’s team, saying it unfairly penalizes the athletes for what they believe was a coaching and management decision.
“I don’t feel athletes should be punished when they probably didn’t know about this,” Mitrovka said.
McComb agreed, saying the sanctions should have targeted the people involved rather than the players. But both women, who are in Paris to support a friend’s daughter on the water polo team, said the scandal won’t dampen their enthusiasm for Canada’s athletes.
FIFA, soccer’s governing body docked six points from the team, fined Canada Soccer about C$313,000 and banned head coach Bev Priestman and two members of her staff for a year each.
The discipline came after two assistant coaches were caught using drones to spy on New Zealand’s practices before the teams played their opening game last Thursday.
The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer have said they are considering an appeal to the point deduction.
Chris Young, of St. John’s, N.L., said outside Canada House that he feels the drone spying scandal “goes against everything we want to stand for” as Canadians, adding “It’s a big joke, kind of makes us look stupid.”
Young, who is primarily here to watch swimming, said it won’t stop him from cheering for the Canadian athletes — especially Summer McIntosh, who won the country’s first medal with a silver in the women’s 400m freestyle on Saturday.
The news of the drone announcement has dominated headlines in the first days of the Paris Games, overshadowing Canada’s opening ceremonies flagbearer announcement and its Olympic opening press conference.
Canadian swimmer Mary-Sophie Harvey, fresh off winning a heat to qualify for the women’s 200-metre freestyle semifinal, said Sunday that she’s been staying in her “bubble” and hasn’t really been following news outside her sport. But she said healthy competition is important to everyone.
“It’s something sad that happened, but all we can do is move forward and hope things go better in that situation,” she said.
Back outside Canada House, Kerri Berner, from Calgary, said she was “heartbroken” for the soccer players who will lose points and risk having their Olympic dreams crushed.
“It doesn’t really reflect very well on Canada, truthfully, with our sports organizations, which is sad,” she said.
Still, she showed up in a red dress and face paint, ready to cheer on Canada’s athletes, especially the tennis players.
“I’m so proud of all the athletes here and what they’re accomplishing, and I think we should be able to cheer for them for that,” she said.
Later in the day, outside Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in St-Étienne, longtime Canadian women’s soccer fan Angela Armstrong was preparing to cheer on the team in their match against host country France.
“I’m sad that happened with this timing for them,” said Armstrong, who was attending the game as part of a trip to celebrate her 30th wedding anniversary.
“The story (about) what’s happening at the official level, that will come out. But I’m here really just to support the athleticism and the commitment, the dedication that those athletes have put in to get here today.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2024.
With files from Gregory Strong in St-Étienne.