ARTICLE 
“Set a goal and see what happens. No harm can come from that. So set your sights on Paris 2024 and let ‘er rip. And slowly that mentality grabbed hold of everyone."

No reminder is necessary, of course, but inspiration is ever at hand, no further away than an upwards eye-tilt in her office.
 
Smack dab in front of Shannon Winzer.
 
Paris.
 
The City of Light. Hemingway’s Moveable Feast. Inspiration to artists and writers, dreamers and do-ers, down through centuries.
 
And, from July 26th to August 11th this year, site of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
 
 “I’m looking at my wall right now,’’ Canada’s National Women’s Volleyball Coach is saying from the Richmond Olympic Oval, outside Vancouver.
 
“Every Mother’s Day, every Christmas, every birthday, has literally become a countdown to the Olympics for my kids.
 
“My Christmas card last year, for example, was ‘One More Year Until the Olympics!’
 
“I have so many paintings and pictures from my kids on my wall here. They are so hyper-aware of when the Olympics are and of our qualification.
 
“They are aware. Very aware. They’re so proud of me. They brag about me all the time, which is really cool,” she laughs. “But they will tell me, on many occasions, how much they hate my job.
 
“So, it works both ways.”
 
Being a mom of three as well as a high-performance coach with Olympic aspirations is, naturally, a high wire juggling act worthy of Cirque de Soleil.
 
Winzer estimates she’s away from home base for 15 weeks a summer (“our ‘summer’ lasting from May through October”).
 
So having husband Mark, nine-year-old Brooklyn, 11-year-old Campbell (Wizner’s maiden name) and 13-year-old sister Riley all on board with the goal makes the conflicting emotions of an inevitable inner tug-‘o-war infinitely easier to navigate.
 
“I always have to ask myself: Is the sacrifice worth it?’’ confesses Winzer. “I wonder if at some point it won’t be. Right now, though, it’s really easy for me to focus on my work at my work.
 
“My husband’s been incredible. There’s no way you can make it work without that level of support from your partner, and your kids.
 
“When we moved from Australia to Canada it was because I knew Canada had a chance to qualify for the Olympics over the next four to eight years. The kids wanted to know why we were leaving. And we told them: ‘Because we’re chasing the Olympics.’
 
“So, they’ve understood for a long time why we’re here. And everybody’s been so supportive.”
 
Canada came wrenchingly close to securing a berth outright from Pool A at the Qualifying Tournament last September at Ningbo, China, finishing third in the group after an impressive 5-2 record. Only the top two nations in the group, Serbia and the Dominican Republic, automatically qualify.
 
But Winzer and Co. are still very much in with a chance for Paris, the final five spots to be determined in June by way of world ranking, following the third round of Volleyball Nations League. Given their current 11th place ranking, and eliminating those above them who’ve already secured qualification, there’s a real reason for optimism.
 
This Canadian entry has certainly shown it belongs on the grandest of sport stages, notching impressive victories over World No. 1 Brazil and powerhouse Serbia.
 
 “Of course there was disappointment,’’ says the team’s Mental Performance Coach, Roger Friesen, referencing that near-miss at Ningbo. “It stings when you get that close, so the immediate reactions are going to be disappointment, sadness and bit of frustration.
 
“Those emotions did not last long, though, and the reason why is that Shannon has gone out of her way to keep highlighting how far this team has come. There was a shift in thought process from the time we started - I got on board shortly after Shannon was hired. Watching this team evolve, we immediately changed the language to instead of looking at 2028, focusing on 2024.
 
“Set a goal and see what happens. No harm can come from that. So set your sights on Paris 2024 and let ‘er rip. And slowly that mentality grabbed hold of everyone. This team has made leaps and bounds in terms of growth and development and also a complete re-setting on team culture.
 
“This team is doing amazing things and the quest for an Olympic spot is absolutely alive and well - if the teams were selected right to fill the remaining spots Canada would be in that group.”
 
The five-game VNL upset of the Brazilians, gold medalists in 2008 and 2012 and silver medalists at the last Summer Games, was for Winzer an epiphany of possibilities.
 
 “With their full lineup, 16-14 in the fifth game,’’ she recalls, with understandable relish. “Incredible. I had a lot of emotion after that game and not just because we were winning but because then it hit me; it was that moment when I felt: ‘If we can do that … Yeah, we’re coming for you, Paris.’”
 
Shannon Winzer’s volleyball journey began on floor at UBC and really took off coaching/administration-wise, as she mentioned, in Australia, spending three and a half years in Melbourne at the Institute of Sport. That put her in constant contact with other sports, with many coaches, receiving a rounded high-performance sport education in the process.
 
“An incredible experience. It absolutely gave me a great foundation from which to build in Canada,’’ recalls Winzer. “It’s very challenging working in volleyball in Australia but after my time at the Institute of Sport, when I came to Canada I was like: “OK, right, what do we have access to?’ I had a good understanding coming of how each piece fits as a coach rather than just coming in and you have all these practitioners, and you don’t know what to do with them. I’d already had that experience, creating a staff team. It was a huge advantage for me.”
 
She remains connected to a female coaching network Down Under and they hold annual think-tank workshops, networking and discussing common challenges in what remains a largely male-dominated workplace.
 
“When I came to Canada,’’ is Winzer’s frank admission, “that was a piece I felt was missing. I had an amazing mentor in Glenn Hoag, the former men’s national coach and they put me with Allison McNeill, the former basketball coach. But what I was really missing was this camaraderie of other female coaches who are also pursuing Olympic dreams, both winter and summer.
 
“You want to know someone is going through it with you. And I think since then, the Pursuit program has provided that. It’s been amazing.”
 
In her three and a half years at the helm in Richmond, Winzer has brought many intangibles to the national team set-up. Just ask the players.
 
“One of the biggest things, I think, is a big-picture viewpoint,’’ reckons outside hitter Vicky Savard, on a WhatsApp call from the island of Santorini, Greece, home to her pro team AO Thiras.
 
 “She’s not only focused on taking the senior team to the Olympics. Of course that’s goal No. 1. But she’s done so many other things for the program - the NextGen program, building an amazing team of mental coaches, physios. Whatever we need. She’s surrounding herself with the best, not only in Vancouver but in Canada.
 
“Her biggest strength is how she can look big-picture and say: ‘Okay how do we get there as a program?’ I think some of the coaches, especially from abroad, their focus is strictly the senior team. They’re not necessarily trying to build the women’s program.
 
“Shannon’s very goal oriented. Okay, this is where we’re going, how do we get there? Very planned but also very open.”
 
For proof of Winzer’s willingness to cast her net outside the box, look no further than Savard, who became a full-timer national teamer at age 29.
 
“To all the coaches before her, I was always an athlete that flew under the radar,’’ she says. “I did the national team when I was younger, in university, but after that, no one ever called me or so much as looked in my direction.”
 
Winzer happened to see a video of Savard’s skills on Intagram, the two women connected on Zoom, and Savard joined the team.
 
“So, I feel like she’s not just focused on the program and thinking: ‘Okay, this is what I have. How do I work with this, what I have, to get the results’,’’ adds Savard.
 
“She wants to explore all options, because we’re not just building a program to go to the Olympics not only this summer but to the next Olympics and the one after that.
 
“It feels like she’s always one step in front of where we’re heading.”
 
Canada hasn’t qualified for an Olympic women’s volleyball tournament since 1996. To do so this summer would be a big statement of intentions.
 
“I remember the first meeting after I joined the team three or four years ago,’’ reminisces Savard, whose cell phone background is a photo of the Eiffel Tower taken by a teammate on a visit to France. “And they mentioned the Olympics. And I thought: ‘The Olympics?!! Can we just tone it down for a few seconds here?’
 
“But no, from the start it was if we want to go there, we have to start picturing it, thinking about it. Now.
 
“We have such a good group of athletes, coaches, the staff. It feels really special, this group.
“We’re putting women’s volleyball on the map again and that hasn’t happened in Canada for a long, long time. We deserve to be talked about. Because we’re going to the Olympics.
 
“I know someone’s not going to go. But we’re going.”
 
Both flights and accommodations for the family are booked, confirms Winzer. Canada’s pre-competition details, too.
 
“We will not,’’ she stresses, “think about anything other than going. There’s no ‘What if …?’ I don’t allow myself to think or talk that way.
 
“When I got involved in the program” - first as the B Team coach, then with the NextGen Team - “I made it clear that we were not looking for athletes who want to play for Canada, we were looking for athletes who want to be Olympians. And there’s a very big difference. Everyone’s going to say they want to go to the Olympics. Sure, who doesn’t? But who’s going to put in what it takes to be an Olympian.
 
“I’ve never been to an Olympics, but we wanted people around who had. So, we hired Roger. He’s amazing, travels with us, and over the last four years we’ve instilled a very strong belief in our vision and that we’re going to get there. And not one person on our team or on our staff doesn’t have that conviction.”
 
Not one person in the Winzer family, either.
 
“I’m excited for me, but I’m also excited for them,’’ says Brooklyn, with a maturity beyond his nine years. “Going to the Olympics isn’t easy.”
 
“I like seeing the Games and watching her coach,” chimes in Campbell.
For sister Riley, a volleyball player herself, the matches can become a tad tense.
 
“It’s exciting to see her on TV,’’ she echoes. “At the end, sometimes I get nervous. Oh my gosh, will they win?
 
“But I think they’re going to make it. They’re a good team.”
And the understanding required when mom has to be away for stretches at a time?
 
“We miss her, but we always FaceTime her,’’ she replies. “So, it’s okay.”
 
Winzer happily remembers a car ride back with Campbell from a soccer practice one day, and his response to a reminder about her summer obligations.
 
“I said (to Campbell): ‘You know I’m going to miss most of your lacrosse season this summer?’ And he’s like: ‘Yeah, me, too. I’m going to have to tell my coach I’m not going to be at provincial championships.’ And I kind of went: ‘Oh, and what are you going to be doing?’
 
“And he answered: ‘I’m going to be in Paris. I’m going to be at the Olympics.’
 
“So, every time I think it’s maybe too much for the family, they remind me that’s it’s this big dream not only for me, but for them.
 
“There is no Plan B. This is it. Everything we do, all our actions, our choices, are of someone who’s going to the Olympics.
 
“Are we here earlier than expected? Yes. One hundred per cent.
 
“Yes, you need talent. You can’t be a bunch of crappy volleyball players and try to qualify. And we have a lot of talent. But we’ve always had talent.
 
“The biggest change is the unwavering belief; the mindset that, yes, we are going to qualify.”