Inside the wild Olympic journey of the Canadian women’s soccer team

On July 22, which in the context of these Olympics is both two weeks and two years ago, retired U.S. soccer star Julie Foudy was asked about the Canadian women’s team. They were arriving in France as defending Olympic champions.

“Going back-to-back is asking a lot,” she said, “given the quality of teams here.”

If she only knew.

The Canadian women will not repeat as Olympic champions. But what unfolded all around them over the last two weeks in France is more complicated than that one sentence. What happened to the women’s program – a beloved underdog; then finally a champion – will be discussed long after they return home.

Illegal drone use. Immoral spying. Suspensions. International courts of appeal. And even a few soccer games were eventually played. Postmedia unpacks what happened and tries to put an unprecedented two-week run into context.

The “non-accredited” staff member

Joseph Lombardi got into a rental car and drove out to find a soccer team. It was a Monday morning in Saint-Étienne, France, about five hours south of Paris, and he really hoped this would turn out to be a more productive day of international espionage.

He was working with Canada Soccer and reporting to Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach with the women’s team. In a statement later provided to FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, Lombardi said he had tried spying on the New Zealand women’s team with his drone two days earlier, but the footage “was not good from an analysis perspective.”

Now it was July 22, only three days before Canada would open defence of its Olympic gold medal, in a group stage match with that very team from New Zealand. Lombardi unpacked his drone and guided it over the field while the team held its closed-door practice session.

New Zealand saw the drone and alerted local authorities. With the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Olympics just four days away, the French security apparatus was on high alert.

Police followed the flight path of the drone back to Lombardi. They immediately seized his belongings, and they took him into custody.

Canadian soccer was about to become the star of an international scandal.

The stakes

Christine Sinclair had been the star of Canadian soccer for more than two decades. The 41-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., scored 190 goals against international opposition, more than any player in world soccer history – woman or man, living or dead.

She might not have been at the peak of her power for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but she remained a key figure. And even though she did not score the winning penalty – that was a young midfielder named Julia Grosso – her jubilant image was beamed back to Canadian households when Canada beat Sweden for the first Olympic gold in program history.

Sinclair retired from international play last year. More than 48,000 fans paid their way into B.C. Place Stadium for a game against Australia on Dec. 5, where Canada won 1-0 and bid farewell to a legend.

“I’ve done everything I can on this national team,” Sinclair told a television interviewer that night. “I’m 100 per cent satisfied and content.”

The early mainstream questions for the 2024 Olympics focused on how Canada would fare without its long-time leader. Who would become the next star, the next Christine Sinclair?

The unscheduled press release

Lombardi was charged with flying an unmanned aircraft over restricted airspace. In his statement to FIFA, he said he received an eight-month suspended sentence. Following three days in custody, he was released.

It was July 24, one day before Canada played New Zealand to open the tournament.

The Canadian Olympic Committee issued a news release to say it was aware “a non-accredited member” of the women’s soccer support staff had been detained, and that they were believed to have been using a drone to spy on a New Zealand practice.

That got everyone’s attention.

Later, a second news release. Lombardi and Mander were both being sent home from the Olympics. Bev Priestman, the Canadian head coach, had made the “decision” to “remove herself” from coaching in Canada’s tournament opener.

“By no means did I direct the individuals,” Priestman said during a brief meeting with reporters, according to The Canadian Press. “I’m still learning the details and obviously this is all unfolding.”

The big win, with a twist

Following 24 hours of chaos, Canada was stunned once more in the first half against New Zealand. The Kiwis were ranked No. 28 in the world — 20 spots behind Canada; raising the question: Why risk getting caught just to spy on them?— but went up 1-0 in the 13th minute.

Priestman was said to be serving her self-imposed suspension back at the team hotel, as assistant Andy Spence ran the sideline. Canada slowly regained a footing, tying the score at 1-1 just before halftime, then moving ahead for good in the 79th minute, when Evelyne Viens scored the winner.

It would only offer temporary respite from the growing storm.

Michael Mayne was New Zealand’s acting coach. He was asked if he could imagine one of his assistants sneaking off to spy on an opposing team without his knowledge.

“It wouldn’t happen,” he told reporters. “Very simple, right? It simply wouldn’t happen. My business is my staff and how we operate.”

“We are not cheats,” Canadian defender Vanessa Gilles told reporters.

Long after the stadium emptied, the story took another turn. It was 6:49 p.m. ET – closing in on 1 a.m. in Paris – when TSN reporter Rick Westhead published a story with the headline: “Canada’s men’s and women’s soccer teams have relied on drones and spying for years, sources say.”

Among the many allegations in the TSN story: Canada spied on an opponent (Japan) in the lead-up to its hallowed gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Not long after that story broke, Canada Soccer announced it was suspending Priestman, and the COC said it had removed her from the Olympic team. In yet another news release, Kevin Blue, chief executive of Canada Soccer said: “Over the past 24 hours, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

The suspicion

As the drone scandal continued to unfold, every Canadian success suddenly came under increased scrutiny. Craig Forrest, the retired goalkeeper and long-time soccer analyst, wondered if fallout from Canada’s espionage scandal might end up costing the women’s program its most coveted possession: The gold medal from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Canada beat Sweden for that gold medal.

“If I’m Sweden right now, I’m making calls and saying, ‘Hold on a minute: How do we know they weren’t spying on our penalty shootouts in practice?’” Forrest said in an interview with Postmedia’s Ryan Pyette. “They should be all over it. I’m waiting for the federation in Sweden to come out and say, ‘we want a judgment on this.’”

Even Sinclair felt compelled to issue a statement. She offered sympathy for all the current members of the team, who played “through condemnable actions by some of their staff as they attempt to defend our gold medal.”

Sinclair said players had no control over the actions of their coaches.

“I want to be clear that having been a national team player for 23 years,” she wrote, “we were never shown or discussed drone footage in team or individual meetings I’ve been present for.”

The penalty, and then the win

On July 27, five days after Lombardi climbed out of his rental car and unpacked his drone, FIFA issued its verdict. It was docking the Canadian team six points from the group stage results – meaning Canada had minus-three points after its win over New Zealand – while issuing a $315,000 fine to Canada Soccer and year-long suspensions to Priestman, Mander and Lombardi.

For Canada to have any chance to advance, it would have to stay undefeated through three group stage games. They would have to do it without their coach, and with what felt like the entire soccer world wondering if they were part of a program that had any integrity.

A day later, against France, they fell behind again. Captain Jessie Fleming tied the score in the 58th minute. But a tie would only be a moral victory. Canada needed another goal, and it was running out of time.

The referee granted nearly a quarter-hour of injury time; a lifeline. It was then, on a lightning bolt of inspiration in the 12th extra minute, that defender Vanessa Gilles scored.

Canada was alive.

“It feels like us against the world right now,” said Fleming.

“Just 12 hours ago we were in a circle crying our eyes out after hearing about the news,” Gilles told reporters. “Punching walls. Crying our eyes out again. Laughing about it in delusion and then crying again. It’s been three days where none of us have really slept. None of us have been able to really eat. Lots of tears.”

The emails, the finger-pointing

Canadian officials appealed the six-point penalty. They were struck down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, just hours before the women’s team played Colombia in yet another do-or-die game. (Despite all odds, Canada could still advance: But it had to win.)

By the end of the day, the ruling itself was rendered a footnote. Documents submitted by FIFA – and released on game day – offered a deeper glimpse not just into the spying, but also into the apparent culture of spying within the Canadian coaching ranks.

A report in The Globe and Mail cites an unredacted section in the FIFA report, with Canada Soccer officials suggesting the notion of using drones to spy on opponents stretched back further than Priestman.

“We suspect that the practice of using a drone stems back to John Herdman when he was the head coach of the women’s national team. In other words,” the Canadians wrote to FIFA, according to the Globe, “this was a practice started by one person – John Herdman – and continued by Bev Priestman.”

The document also included an email exchange featuring Priestman four months before the 2024 Olympics. She suggested this form of “scouting” could be “the difference between winning and losing and all top 10 teams do it.”

Anecdotal suggestions of truth behind that claim popped up from former players across social media. Officially, though, organizations were aghast.

“We respectfully disagree with Ms. Priestman’s assertion that ‘all top 10 teams’ engage in such practices,” a spokesperson for Team Zambia told The Athletic. “Team Zambia maintains high ethical standards in our preparation and competition strategies.”

Canada beat Colombia 1-0 in its third and final group stage game, finishing 3-0-0, but with only three official points. That was good enough to book passage to the quarter-final, with a meeting against Germany.

Support poured in from other Canadian athletes, including Marie-Philip Poulin, captain of the Canadian women’s hockey team.

“In the face of adversity that was brought to them, they rose even higher,” she wrote on social media. “No matter what happens next in their Olympic journey, in my heart and mind, they have already won.”

The new Christine Sinclair

It was not one player: It was a group. There was Jessie Fleming, the new captain, who was everywhere on the field, working like a terrier on defence. There was the goalkeeper, and a defender who emerged as both a goal-scoring hero and a necessary spokesperson.

Gilles, a 28-year-old who raised in Shanghai and Ottawa, scored two goals – both winners, against France and Colombia. She was also vocal when Canada needed a voice.

“She’s outspoken, honest, transparent and quite frankly, I don’t think she gives a shit what people think,” Neil Stafford, her former college coach, told Postmedia. “I love that about her. ”

And then there was the goalkeeper, Kailen Sheridan, who made a series of key saves in the group stage to maintain Canada’s mathematically challenged hope for the knockout stage alive.

“Ultimately, it’s not a big pressure,” she said. “Everybody has stepped up at really important times and (in) different ways. That’s what makes this team so special.

“It’s not one or two people leading the charge. It’s 22.”

The result

Canada Soccer has pledged an independent external review of its program. Herdman, the former women’s coach who is now head coach of Toronto FC, had denied involvement in drone use in remarks made in a news conference as the scandal was unfolding.

On July 26, he told reporters: “I’m highly confident that in my time as a head coach at an Olympic Games or World Cup, we’ve never been involved in any of those activities.”

A report in The Toronto Star suggested some of the program’s corporate partners have concerns about their investment. Canadian sports minister Carla Qualtrough said the government would withhold funding following the scandal, though it remained unclear how much money would be withheld.

Helen Stoumbos, a former national team player, told CTV: “Anybody that thinks of Canada Soccer is going to think of this fiasco.”

Those questions will ultimately be the most tangible souvenirs of an unprecedented 10-day run for the Canadians at the 2024 Olympics. The team had won a medal – two bronze (2012, 2016) and gold (2020) — in each of the last three Olympics.

That streak ended on Saturday, with a heartbreaking quarter-final loss. Fleming was forced to leave the game at halftime after German Marina Hegering fell on her head as part of an awkward collision in the first half.

Canada had opportunities to score but could not convert. And so it was that after winning the gold medal on penalties three years ago in Tokyo, the Canadians were undone by them on Saturday: Falling 4-2 to the Germans.

“If we had been able to medal, that would have been – we said, ‘someone make a movie out of this’ because I don’t think it will ever happen again,” said Canadian veteran Janine Beckie. “I hope it doesn’t happen to anybody else because I would never want anyone to go through with what we have.”

– With files from Ryan Pyette and Erin Valois