Six "Celebration Walls" are being unveiled across the country to give residents a place to cheer on local athletes competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Canadian Tire, the company that created the walls, says the walls are custom-designed interactive installations featuring photos, statistics, quotations and descriptions of accolades. The walls serve as backdrops for residents to take photos.
In a news release on Monday, the retailer said the walls provide Canadians with a "meaningful way" to show their support for Team Canada athletes, when their hometown heroes are competing without family, friends and fans in the stands in the Japanese capital.
On Tuesday, Canadian Tire unveiled a Celebration Wall for sprinter Aaron Brown in Toronto's Distillery District. Next to the wall is a sign containing his name in bold red and white letters and the caption — "Go Aaron Go." A figure of a sprinter in a relay race is attached to the sign in red.
Brown, who is competing in Athletics, is an Olympic bronze medallist (Rio 2016), a two-time world bronze medallist (2013 and 2015), and was a World Championship finalist in 2019 (100m and 200m). The Tokyo Games are his third Olympics. His hometown is Toronto.
Brown, currently in Florida where is training before he heads to Tokyo in two days, said he was impressed with the wall, saying it matters because the Tokyo Olympics are "unorthodox" games.
"A place for my friends and family, supporters, to all go and support me, having a big wall like that, celebration wall just dedicated to myself, I'm humbled and definitely so grateful," Brown said in a Zoom interview.
"Just to see it in real life, like I said, it's just a surreal moment," he said.
Brown said the wall is a way to maintain a connection with family, friends and fans. His wife and son will not be in Tokyo to see him compete, he said.
"My wife is going to be going up to Toronto when the game starts, so she'll be able to check it out, take my son there, so if I could see a picture or a video of him there, that would be just the icing on the cake."
Wall is 'pretty awesome,' Brown's mother says
Ian and Sonia Brown, his parents, were in the Distillery District on Tuesday afternoon for the unveiling of the wall.
"You know what, it's surreal," Ian Brown said of the wall.
"Here's a way for us, as Canadians, to show our support for all of the athletes around, and to make sure that they know that they are loved, and we're cheering them on."
Brown's parents were able to support their son in person when he competed in his first two Olympics in 2012 and 2016. They said they're still getting used to the idea of cheering from a distance this time around. They said the wall helps.
"Pretty awesome. Amazing," Sonia Brown said of the wall.
"I send him virtual hugs all the time and he knows that I love him to death," she said.
"I think for Aaron, his motivation and his determination to do the best that he can do is what really drives him. And it takes over. He just runs hard and he trains hard. He is a remarkable human, actually."
Wall to be unveiled for Rosie MacLennan on Wednesday
On Wednesday, Canadian Tire plans to unveil a Celebration Wall for trampolinist Rosie MacLennan in King City at the corner of King Road and Keele Street.
MacLennan is a two-time Canadian Olympic champion, in London 2012 and Rio 2016, and the first Canadian to successfully defend an Olympic title at the Summer Games. She is a 2013 and 2018 world champion.
Additional Celebration Walls will be set up for sport climber Alannah Yip in Vancouver, tennis player Leylah Fernandez in Montreal, Paralympic swimmer Nicolas-Guy Turbide in Quebec City and para-cyclist Kate O'Brien in Calgary.
'Celebration Walls' to give residents a place to cheer on Olympic athletes - CBC.ca
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