One dead after potential wrong way crash on Highway 401 in Milton: OPP
One person is dead and another is in life-threatening condition after a driver was travelling in the wrong direction on Highway 401 in Milton Sunday, according to police.
The defining moment of Annie Vernon’s rowing career is one forever captured on TV news footage – she and her three teammates standing at the rowing-canoeing park in Beijing, receiving their Olympic medals in 2008. But the footage shows clear anguish on the faces of Vernon and her Great Britain teammates; the medals were silver, their quadruple sculls boat having been passed by the Chinese in the race’s home stretch.
For Olympians who train with the dream of feeling the gold medal being placed around their neck as their national anthem plays, falling just short can feel like missing the opportunity of a lifetime.
Even now, the memories pack a punch for Vernon.
“I think I still feel 90 per cent the same emotions that I did in that moment, which was just huge frustration. I really felt like we'd let ourselves down. We would really focus on winning gold and I still think we were capable of doing it on that day,” Vernon told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday.
It’s a reality that can seem strange to an armchair fan, watching elite athletes compete at a global level for the highest honour in their sport. Surely, finishing second in the world should feel like an amazing achievement? It’s a nice thought, but one that runs into the reality that any competition that is about winning is also about losing. For instance, Vernon points out that the area where athletes are able to see family and friends immediately after a race is often referred to as the ‘kiss and cry’ area, with tears that are not always for joy.
Vernon, a two-time world champion, has examined the subject beyond just her own first-hand experience. In 2019, she looked at the psychology of elite athletes in her book “Mind Games.” She says that finishing a close second can often be more difficult for an athlete to process than missing the podium outright, or finishing well back of the leaders.
“I think it's because you're so close but you're so far. You know you can touch the podium but you're not standing on it. You're watching other people stand there they get their medals and have their moment,” says Vernon.
Now 13 years removed from her Olympic medal race, Vernon has had time to reflect on her performance and can recognize it for the monumental achievement it was. She says she tells athletes that it’s important to look beyond the podium.
“I think as an athlete you've got to look beyond the result, you've got to understand everything you've achieved, the highs and lows the friendship, the memories, the people you’ve met, the experience you’ve had,” she says. “Yeah, that the medal, the result is a huge part of that, but it's just still one part of that picture.”
That said, as someone wired for elite competition, the sting of losing can linger. Vernon had hoped to repeat on the Olympic podium at the 2012 games in London, this time with a gold. Instead, her eights crew finished fifth.
“Resilience comes from being tested, doesn’t it?” she says. “Obviously four years later I wasn't able to get that goal that I wanted, so I didn't have that that fairy tale ending that I would have loved. But again that's life isn't it? You grit your teeth you smile and you move on to your next challenge.”
One person is dead and another is in life-threatening condition after a driver was travelling in the wrong direction on Highway 401 in Milton Sunday, according to police.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc insists he's not planning a leadership campaign to head the Liberal party, should current leader and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resign, seemingly quashing rumours he's planning to make a move for his boss' job.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
"The Fall Guy," the Ryan Gosling-led, action-comedy ode to stunt performers, opened below expectations with US$28.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, providing a lukewarm start to a summer movie season that's very much to be determined for Hollywood.
Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro's vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.
The Montreal-born actor, famed for his portrayal of Captain Kirk in "Star Trek," says he is open to reprising the iconic role in the sci-fi franchise as long as the storytelling is stellar.
How legitimate are claims by some content creators that the average person can earn passive income from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram? Personal finance columnist Christopher Liew says it's quite possible, if you're willing to put in the initial time and effort.
The latest round of Gaza cease-fire talks ended in Cairo after "in-depth and serious discussions,"{ the Hamas militant group said Sunday, reiterating key demands that Israel again rejected.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.