Richard Valenzuela remembers playing road hockey with his kids in the parking lot of the grocery store next to their house.
It was then that he noticed his daughter’s physicality and competitiveness, and while he felt she was destined for greatness, he could never have imagined her winning Olympic silver.
“I had an inkling that she was going to do something, but I didn’t know it was going to be this magnitude,” he told CBC’s All Points West host Jason D’Souza, just hours after watching his 25-year-old daughter Shalaya Valenzuela win the silver medal with Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team at the Paris Olympic Games.
Canada finished second in its pool behind top-ranked New Zealand, which went undefeated across the tournament and defended the gold medal it won at the Tokyo Games.
Team New Zealand defeated Canada 19-12 in the rugby sevens gold medal match Tuesday at the Olympic Games in Paris.
On Monday, the Canadians beat host France 19-14 in the quarterfinals in front of a raucous hometown crowd. Then they upset the favoured Australians 21-12 in the semifinals earlier Tuesday.
Defending champs New Zealand defeated Canada 19-12 in the gold medal match Tuesday night.
“The outcome is just amazing,” Valenzuela said. “They almost won a gold, for Pete’s sake. They just blew me away.”
Family watching from North America
Shalaya, a member of the Tseshaht First Nation near Port Alberni, has always been athletic, Valenzuela said.
“I thought she might have ended up being a boxer because of the aggressiveness of her, you know.”
On Tuesday, her family in all corners of North America watched as she and her team competed for gold on the other side of the Atlantic.
Thomas Hleck, Valenzuela’s cousin, looked on from Port Alberni, B.C., on Vancouver Island.
“I’m not a rugby person, honestly, but this has definitely got me excited about rugby,” he said.
“It’s great to see a Tseshaht member on the world stage. It’s amazing.”
Valenzuela said family and friends were eagerly watching the match on Tuesday from Mexico and Washington state, as well.
“I’m so proud of her. She’s setting a really good example for our people,” he said.
While he hasn’t been able to talk to his daughter yet, he said she sent him a photo of herself with her medal and has been out celebrating with her team.
“They’re having the time of their life,” Valenzuela said.