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Kitchener's Olympian: Sarah Pavan in Rio, ready for beach volleyball

Kitchener native Sarah Pavan is going to the Olympics for the first time and we've been following her for the past couple of months as she prepares. 'As I was flying to Rio, things got real very quickly,' she said.

First Olympic beach volleyball match Sunday afternoon

Kate Bueckert · CBC News ·
Kitchener native and beach volleyball player Sarah Pavan is in Rio for her first Olympics. "As I was flying to Rio, things got real very quickly," she says. (Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)

For Kitchener native Sarah Pavan, her Olympic dream is finally happening.

"As I was flying to Rio, things got real very quickly," Pavan wrote in an email from Rio.

She flew from Los Angeles to Houston, and Houston is where American athletes stop to get processed.

"So, when we were boarding the plane to fly from Houston to Rio, there were a bunch of Team USA athletes on the plane with us. Feeling their energy and excitement made things sink in for me, and it finally hit me that I was on a plane to go to the Olympics," Pavan wrote.
Sarah Pavan, left, with partner Heather Bansley of London, Ont., after winning bronze at the Moscow Grand Slam earlier this year. (Volleyball Canada)

"Up until that point, I was looking forward to going, but all of my thoughts revolved around continuing to train and improve, and focusing on our goals. At that moment, I allowed myself to let go a little bit and just feel the excitement and pride that I had been keeping hidden for a long time."

'Feeling good and confident'

The beach volleyball player has been in Rio ahead of the Games, training with partner Heather Bansley of London, Ont.

She and Bansley were the first to train at the Olympic venue, she said.

"Driving up to it the first time was pretty intimidating. They hadn't covered the outside of it at that point, so it was just a massive structure of scaffolding that seemed to stretch into the sky. I have played in front of some massive crowds before, but the outside of the stadium looked huge," she said.

On Sunday, the pair got to practice on the stadium court.

"While it is definitely big, it is much more intimate and comfortable than it looked on the outside. We had a really good training session there ... so I think we are both feeling good and confident heading into our first match,"

Pavan and Bansley will face the team from Netherlands Sunday at 1:30 ET in their first match.

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