Calgary fans cheer on cyclist Sarah Orban, but womens' sprint falls short at Paris Olympics

A crowd of over 30 passionate Canadian cycling fans turned out for a Monday morning watch party at McKenzie Meadows Golf Club in south Calgary, but it turned out not to be Canada’s day.

The party were there to cheer on Sarah Orban, part of Canada’s women’s cycling team, who was participating in the cycling sprint Monday morning.

Sarah Orban, cycling - track. (Source: Canada Olympic Committee)

Leading the cheers was former Calgary Flame Perry Berezan, who is the Orbans’ neighbour and a longtime friend of the family.

“Sarah is creating quite the following with her journey since joining the Canadian cycling team,” Berezan said.

Unfortunately, the Canadian women, which also included Sherwood Park, Alta.'s Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest of Levis, Quebec, finished eighth in the Women’s Team Sprint event, which was won by Great Britain.

Perry Berezan is the neighbour and a longtime friend of Sarah Orban's parents.

That didn’t deter Berezan’s enthusiasm, however.

“The Olympics is great because you find someone in your community that you can relate to, that has sacrificed as much as Sarah has,” he said. “She’s become one of the best starters in the world for the team sprint, and she’s so good at it – her race this morning showed it. She left her two teammates in the dust, because they couldn’t keep up with her.

“Which is the tough part in team sprint,” he added. “Sadly they couldn’t keep up, so their time wasn’t as good, but she went all out.”

“(I’m) just proud of her,” he said. “Really proud of Sarah. She was a soccer player who decided she wanted to become a cycling specialist and she’s become one of the best in the world.”

Orban was a past 2017 CTV Calgary Athlete of the Week

With files from Tyler Barrow