'I was crying': Former teammate, coaches watch Ottawa defender's gold-medal win

Former coaches and teammates of Vanessa Gilles huddled around their television screens Friday as they watched the Canadian women's soccer team take gold in an historic match against Sweden at the the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Canada won 3-2 after a dramatic round of penalty kicks.

Raz El-Asmar was in his family room, which was plastered with Canada flags, to watch the 25-year-old defender play. 

He said Gilles was 16 years old when she started to hone her soccer skills in Ottawa with the team he coached at the time.

"As soon as she showed up on the pitch, you could tell, just a phenomenal athlete, just the way she presents herself with a smile all the time," said El-Asmar who's the current head coach for the Ottawa TFC girls team.

She was always asking how she could improve, he said — something that was needed at the time because she couldn't kick straight.

"I'll say that only because she admitted it," he said. 

LISTEN | Former teammate and coach on Ottawa's Vanessa Gilles journey to the gold-medal Olympic game

Gilles also had those qualities that can't be taught, said her friend and former teammate Miranda Smith.

Smith played with Gilles when they were younger, on what was then called Capital United. She said Gilles had great heart, leadership skills and a motivation to learn and work hard. 

"I've never seen a female player with the dominance that Vanessa has in her aerial game," she said.

"You see Vanessa going for a ball in the air, you can almost guarantee she's going to win it."

When she watched Friday's game, Smith had the same nerves as if she was right alongside Gilles on the Olympic field. What she also had was a jersey given to her by Gilles. 

The defender was a key element to getting the team ever closer to the gold medal match — scoring the winning goal on a crucial penalty kick in the quarter-final game against Brazil last week. 

"Watching her [go] for that goal was one of the highlights of her tournament for me. I was crying. I was overcome with emotion," Smith said.

On Friday, Gilles missed her penalty kick when the ball hit the crossbar, but her former high school soccer coach, Joé Fournier, said the game's conditions were "harsh". Even with the time change to avoid the sweltering heat of the day, the women had already been playing for two hours in a high-pressure game. 

LISTEN | Canadian women's soccer team delivers thrilling Olympic gold-medal victory over Sweden

Fournier, who's the director of the soccer program at École secondaire publique Louis-Riel in Ottawa, said he felt immense relief and excitement after the team's gold-medal win. But now that the Olympics are coming to an end — much like many other Canadians who have been getting up bright and early the past two weeks to watch Team Canada — he plans to catch up on his sleep.