How Canada have used 2012 bronze to drive Olympic success

It was close to midnight when Canada 's Julia Grosso readied herself to take the 12th kick of the penalty shootout against Sweden in the women's Olympic soccer final in 2021. After a 1-1 draw at the International Stadium in Yokohama, Japan, the two teams couldn't be separated after extra time or even after five spot kicks apiece -- with both missing three under enormous pressure. But when Sweden's Jonna Andersson saw her effort saved, Grosso had a chance to make history.

With the air still thick with humidity, the University of Texas midfielder stepped up and sent the ball centrally, it hit goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl 's leg but still had enough power to ricochet into the net and spark jubilant celebrations.

For Canada it was the culmination of a decade of hard work, turning back-to-back bronze medals to gold. Indeed, the journey to success at the 2021 tournament (which was delayed and played behind closed doors during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic) could be dated back to their first-ever Olympic medal, when they overcame France to claim bronze at London 2012.

"I wasn't a part of the team then," Canada and Chelsea defender Ashley Lawrence told ESPN, while at an event to promote EA FC's Ultimate Team. "I was still dreaming and cheering on the team [from home], but witnessing that tournament was life-changing for myself. It opened my eyes; it allowed me to really dream and see true examples of players, Canadian players, competing at the highest level. That tournament sparked a fire in me."

The latter stages of the 2012 Olympics showcased the best and the worst of Canadian soccer. The team's 4-3 semifinal loss to United States after extra time is regarded as one of the greatest matches ever in women's tournament football, but it was also heartbreaking for Canada. The team went from the heady joy of Christine Sinclair 's hat trick to a sense of injustice from the questionable calls that allowed the U.S. to equalise from the spot, before Alex Morgan snatched the win in the 123rd minute.

After suffering such a disappointing loss to a familiar opponent, Canada were forced to rally for the bronze medal match vs. France, but were kept under the thumb by a team that registered 25 shots. Yet, through sheer grit and determination, Canada held on and were rewarded as Diana Matheson's 92nd-minute strike settled the tie and gave the country its first major honour. It might not have been pretty, but it was beautiful.

Coming just a year after the team had finished bottom of Group A at the 2011 Women's World Cup -- losing their three games against Germany , France and Nigeria , while scoring just a single goal -- the medal gave the country hope again.

A quarterfinal defeat to England at the 2015 World Cup saw more disappointment amid the higher expectations that came with hosting the tournament, but the Olympics once again proved a salve to their wounds. At Brazil 2016, Canada steamed through the group stage, picking up three wins from three, before falling to eventual champions Germany in the semifinals. But they saw off the hosts in São Paulo to claim another bronze and mentally banked the experience to help them in the future.

For Lawrence, who had become a firm fixture in the side by 2016, Canada's identity and continuity from 2012 helped the team to grow.

"We've just been able to keep that energy [from 2012] year after year after year," she said. "And every time we have a young player coming through, they bring a new energy, a new dynamic, but we don't really forget we created that foundation that lies within; as we like to say, our 'Canadian DNA.'

"When you look at the makeup of our team, even now, a lot of our players are playing overseas: they're playing in Europe, or in America. So, we've been able to acquire a lot of experience and knowledge from other environments and I think that's really helped us to bring back those experiences and styles of play to the Canada national team. And then when we connect that with our culture, it's a recipe for success."

Indeed, the sacrifices made by Lawrence and her teammates are something that has helped grow a winning mentality, balancing the desire to succeed with the need to stay humble.

"We know what it's like to have to make hard choices as players, to be far away from our friends and families in order to achieve our dreams and play professionally," she added. "But it is very grounding, just that humility makes up who we are as people, and that's a big thing that we pride ourselves on. It's not just the player, it's the human being, and we hope that it has been the difference maker when it comes to the highest level."

For Lawrence's teammate for club and country, Kadeisha Buchanan , the relentless pace of an Olympic tournament is what gets the best out of the side.

"I think the Olympics is where we come alive because in the past, we haven't done that well in the World Cups but we go on to bring that energy into the Olympics and kind of succeed in that," she told ESPN at the same event. "The Olympics is a big beast in itself: a lot of games in a short turnaround. So, I think we just have to have that Dory mentality from "Finding Nemo" -- you just got to forget and move on to the next game, we don't have time to dwell.

"I think the tight turnarounds help. I think we're all perfectionists and we always want to dwell and fix everything, but at the Olympics, it's really you have to be snap, you have to get out of what you're going through and move on to the next game."

Each Olympic tournament has pushed Canada in different ways. In 2012, it was about moving on from the nadir of the World Cup and using the momentum of their 2011 Pan American Games success under Englishman John Herdman. Then, four years later, it was a similar pattern as Herdman's "Bronze Age" took shape and showed how they could compete on the biggest stages and deal with pressure.

Then in 2021, after a dour run of results under Herdman's predecessor Kenneth Heiner-Møller, Bev Priestman had to help the team believe again. She only had 10 months in the job before heading to Japan and while her limited time in training and constraints of the pandemic kept Canada's backs against the wall, she relied on resolute defending and the team ground their way through the tournament to make history.

"When Bev took over, there was more challenges than one," Lawrence said. "It's not easy, but we were all, again, very clear on where we wanted to go, and we knew it wasn't going to be easy, but there was that phrase that stood out with 'changing the colour of the medal.'

"At the time, we're like: 'okay, it sounds good, let's really buy into it.' Every day being with each other, but not only that, especially through the Zoom calls and every possible way that Bev and the staff were able to really repeat that message and make sure that we believe it, it got to the point where we did. And so that was what really carried us through Tokyo.

"I think we've always been very good in tough situations and challenging moments, that's a big positive, a big trait to us as a group, and we're often considered the underdogs in a lot of situations, but we don't look at that as a negative; it really is a fuel for motivation."

So what is it about the Olympics that brings out the best in Canada? It is a perilous tournament that pushes players to the brink of exhaustion, legs heavy and minds clouded with fatigue, but Canada have continually found the resilience to fight through to the latter stages.

Once again, the team come into the Olympics off the back of a World Cup disappointment as they crashed out of the 2023 event in the group stage after drawing with Nigeria, beating Republic of Ireland , then losing 4-0 to Australia . The tournament had played out as the team's disputes with the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) rumbled on in the background, after finding a temporary solution to allow them to compete, but their key pre-tournament preparations were disrupted as players had gone on strike over the CSA's financial constraints.

The team garnered support from all corners of the women's football world, yet heading into this Olympics the disagreements have yet to be fully resolved. And while none of those things are able to be controlled by the manager, Priestman will take invaluable learnings into Paris 2024.

"The lowest point in my career, you could say, was the [2023] World Cup," she told CBS . "And so, in those moments, you have to dig deep. You have to look hard in the mirror and promise yourself things that you'll never do again. I said to some of my technical staff 'don't let me make that mistake again.'"

Their failings at the biggest tournament in football could again be a teachable moment for Canada. So often it has been the fuel that has filled the tanks, allowing the team to keep running, kicking and blocking with all their might, pushing them all the way to the Olympic podium. And the road to a potential fourth-consecutive medal starts at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Étienne against New Zealand on Thursday.

"I think we just want to create history," Buchanan said. "We just want to do well. We just want to make Canada proud and we're hungry. We're always hungry to be at the closing ceremonies, and that means making it to the furthest you can be.

"But to even think about the outcome ... we're always thinking about the process. Yeah, we want to win the gold medal, but how we're going to get there, and we have to do that every single day. So that's what we're really thinking about. We're not really thinking about being the pressure of being back-to-back [champions]. We're thinking about what it takes to get there."