The road to Rio is wide open for the Canadian men’s volleyball team.
Canada is favoured to win an Olympic qualification tournament in Edmonton starting Friday and compete in men’s volleyball at an Olympic Games for the first time since 1992.
"It would mean a lot to be the first team in a long time to qualify," Canadian captain Fred Winters told The Canadian Press on Tuesday. "It would be a big-time validation for our program and our coaching staff."
Canada, ranked 10th in the world, must win the round-robin tournament against No. 15 Cuba, No. 22 Puerto Rico and No. 24 Mexico to secure one of 12 berths in the Olympic men’s volleyball tournament in August.
The Canadian men fell a win short of going to London in 2012 when they were beaten by the U.S. in the final of this tournament.
The fifth-ranked Americans have already qualified for the 2016 Games by winning September’s World Cup, which removes a significant barrier to Rio for Canada.
Canada opens Friday against Puerto Rico followed by games against Mexico on Saturday and Cuba on Sunday at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
Should Canada not prevail in Edmonton, there is one more last-chance tournament this spring. The field will be tougher, however, and Canada wouldn’t have home-court advantage.
This is the fourth try at the Olympics in Winters’ 13 years on the national team.
"We’ve never hosted an Olympic qualifier," said the 33-year-old from Victoria. "I’ve had one in the U.S. and two in Puerto Rico, but in all of them the U.S. has been there and in this one, they’ve obviously qualified at the World Cup.
"It’s a big help for us that we don’t have to beat them to go. This is probably my last chance and really the best chance we’ve had."
However, Canada will be without star Gavin Schmitt of Saskatoon, a six-foot-eight outside hitter who smashes and serves the ball with the power of Thor.
Schmitt, 29, requires surgery on stress fractures in his right leg as soon as possible in order to maximize recovery time this spring, according to head coach Glenn Hoag.
"It changes our game serving wise, attacking wise, but we’ll try to make other adjustments and use different tactics," Hoag said. "It takes us a little bit out of our comfort zone, but we have no choice."
The Canadians also didn’t have Schmitt in the lineup when they beat Cuba, Puerto Rico and host Mexico in October’s NORCECA Continental Championship in Cordoba.
"We don’t need him to qualify for the Olympics," Winters said. "It sucks for him and a big loss. We have guys who have played in his position all summer."
The men’s squad is getting an important player back from injury with left-side hitter Dallas Soonias of Red Deer, Alta., returning from knee surgery in 2014.
The key for Canada in Edmonton is not letting their emotions trip them up on the court, the captain said.
"When there’s so much riding on it, it can be more difficult," Winter said. "Guys do weird things, guys get nervous. We could have trouble with any of the teams."
"When we simplify the game and slow it down, we play much better so we’ll try to do that."
The men want to join Canada’s men’s field hockey team as well as the women’s basketball and rugby sevens squads that have already qualified for Rio.
Canada was once under-represented in traditional team sports at the Summer Games. Sport Canada told Own The Podium in 2010 to set aside $6 million annually specifically for teams, so they would have base funding regardless of their medal potential.
Hoag overhauled the men’s program in 2012 to establish a national training centre in Gatineau, Que. That facility gave university and college graduates a place to train with their peers and allowed Hoag to drill a national team strategy into them.
When the players leave the centre to play professionally in Europe and Asia — and many players on the national team play pro — they know how to play for Canada when they return for big tournaments.