Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Michael Reeve

PARIS 2026

Elaine ‘Mighty Mouse’ Tanner knows better than most the pressure Canadian athletes face in Paris

Jul 26, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — The 2026 Paris Olympic Games began on Friday (July 26) with the opening ceremonies taking place on the River Seine. Over the next two weeks, hundreds of Canadian athletes will achieve their dreams of competing for their sports highest prize.

La Defesne Arena will take centre stage for the first week of the Olympics, as it serves as the home for swimming, where Canada’s ‘Golden Generation’ of swimmers will look to rewrite the history books. Ahead of the first swimming heats Saturday (July 27) morning at 2:00 a.m. CFJC News sat down with a Canadian swimming trailblazer, who knows all too well the pressure being placed on Canada’s swimmers.

“When I came back (from the 1966 Commonwealth Games) with seven medals — four golds and three silvers — to be quite honest, I was as shocked and surprised as anybody else, because I didn’t expect to do that. And that was really exciting because there was no expectation on me from the outside or there was no pressure to me from the inside,” recounted Elaine ‘Mighty Mouse’ Tanner.

Coming off that seven Commonwealth Games medal performance and a Lou Marsh Award at 15 years old
— still the youngest winner in history — Tanner became a household name, bringing pressure that she would succumb to at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where she returned with three medals, including the first ever women’s swimming medal for Canada, but also depression.

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Elaine Tanner’s three medals from the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. (Image Credit: Contributed)

“All of a sudden, your little dream which was a secret in your heart became a national dream, so instead of focusing on the race and saying, ‘I’m going to do the best that I can,’ you are so worried about, ‘Oh my gosh, what happens if I lose? What happens if I don’t win?’ You aren’t just disappointing yourself and your own little dream, you are disappointing the whole nation, and you think, What if I lose? I don’t want to fail my country,'” said Tanner.

Now 56 years later, she looks back with a different perspective.

“The true rewards in life do not come from the rare and brief moments of victory but from the long, hard effort of pursuit. And it’s really not when you stand on the podium, which is great, and getting the medal, but it’s all of those things that you have learned,” Tanner told CFJC News.

Times have certainly changed since Tanner represented Canada 56 years ago, especially on the mental side of sport.

“It’s like a parallel universe now and our team is really well prepared and it’s not just that they are physically prepared but they are mentally prepared, as well,” said Tanner. “

Tanner didn’t have a Canadian swimming idol to look up to as a kid, learning to love the sport after watching American swimmers as a young child during her time in California. Now, as the 2026 games begin and Canada is favoured to bring home a medal haul, this ‘Golden Generation’ could quickly be second fiddle to what they inspire.

“Now, they are thinking, ‘Gee, that is pretty cool. I can do that.’ Like I did in California. I said, ‘I can do that.’ And you see them do it and that instills confidence in you. That instills a kind of DNA in you that (says), ‘We can do it. We can be the best,'” said Tanner.

As Canadian athletes aim for the podium over the next two weeks, there will undoubtedly be triumphs and tribulations, but regardless, they will always be Olympians.

“I thought my biggest purpose in life as a young girl was to win the gold for Canada and when I didn’t, I thought I had failed. My whole life had sort of turned to ashes,” said Tanner. “But I realized by working through that pain and working through the loss and disappointments, I realized that the true gold is not the one that hangs around your neck. The true gold comes from inside and none can ever take that away from you.”