Jay Blankenau looking to amend unfinished business from last Olympics – Toronto Sun

The Olympics have barely begun and Jay Blankenau has already helped make Canadian history.

For the first time in the Olympic journey of Canada men’s volleyball, the national team qualified for back-to-back Games, following a fifth-place finish in Rio 2016.

That makes him one of just seven players in the existence of the Canadian men’s volleyball program who can now claim they’ve been to two Games in a row.

“To be honest, I haven’t thought about that that much until you just said it like that,” said Blankenau. “I haven’t really framed it that way for myself. That is pretty cool, putting it that way. But I can’t say that was at the top of my mind.”

Not when they left Rio de Janeiro with a feeling of unfinished business after proving Canada belongs on sports’ biggest stage by finishing second in their pool, only to be unceremoniously ousted in straight sets by the Russians in the opening playoff round.

“The last Olympics, although disappointing losing in the quarter-finals to Russia, it was a quality result. It was a little disappointing, but I think the overall theme was actually more motivating for this one,” said Blankenau, whose team ended a 24-year Olympic drought in qualifying for the Rio Games. “A lot of us were really like, ‘We’ve got to be back here, improve and we’ve got to be able to do better next time. So, that was a pretty over-arching theme for us.

“Now, for this summer we’re feeling pretty motivated. We have big goals and we think we have guys who are able to do that.”

Especially after a Volleyball Nations League that saw Canada follow up a slow, injury-infused start by running the table on their final five games.

“We used Nations League as a bit of a buildup, for sure. We also moved some lineups around, we had a couple guys with some nagging things,” Blankenau said of Canda’s 7-8 record. “We weren’t all full-tilt from the start. It was a bit of an up-and-down tournament, you could say, but definitely as it rolled on we became more consistent.”

The Nations League tournament wasn’t the only action players had over the past year, which was interrupted to different degrees by COVID-19 as the various professional leagues across the world attempted to play as much as possible.

“Most of us had a pro season,” Blankenau said, adding they played with no fans in the stands once COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed. “But definitely nothing that replaces getting back with the boys on the team here in Canada. We’ve been together for so long and a lot of us have come up through junior (national) and (national) B team together.

“So, the relationship for us, we’re like brothers on the team. That part is way better than playing pro.”

Blankenau is one of three Edmontonians on Team Canada’s 12-man roster, giving his hometown an incredible 25% representation, along with veteran libero Blair Bann and Olympic newcomer Lucas Van Berkel.

And none of the three ended up playing for their hometown University of Alberta Golden Bears.

“Yeah, we all kind of made our way in different places,” said the six-foot-five setter who played for both the Mount Royal University Cougars and the University of Calgary Dinos before joining the Team Canada’s full-time training centre in Gatineau, Que., in 2012, and joining the national senior team roster in 2014. “There was a good volleyball community in Edmonton and Sherwood Park when I was coming through. I don’t know what it’s like now, but probably three years ahead of me and two or three years behind me, there was a pretty good group of athletes that chose to play volleyball.

“So, that’s actually probably pretty important in our development overall.”

Just imagine what he and his Team Canada brothers might be able to accomplish with the sport’s popularity back home here should they reach their goal in Tokyo of earning our country’s first Olympic medal in volleyball.

“Honestly, the biggest thing to me is maybe kids can see a legitimate future in volleyball, whereas before it was kind of unknown,” said Blankenau, 31, who plays club professionally with Poland’s Verva Warszawa. “Like, what is pro? Or what is Nations League? But everybody knows what the Olympics are. If you can see that at the end of your road when you’re a young kid, and they known the team’s been there so it’s possible.

“I just think that keeps kids in the sport, keeps younger kids motivated for that bigger dream.”

And speaking of dreams …

“Well, we’re hunting down a medal, so I would love a medal,” Blankenau said. “I think we have the guys to do it. We’re going to have to win some tough games, of course, like any other tournament.

“But I’m pretty confident that if we play our game that we can do that.”

E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge