'I can't just hang there. I have to finish.' Tangled in a rope net, Dilpreet knew her team would be eliminated
Success is not all about winning, says coach Waneek Horn-Miller
It was the moment all teams had been dreading — at the end of Episode 4, one team would be eliminated from Canada's Ultimate Challenge.
Going into the last challenge, Team Yellow, coached by Waneek Horn-Miller, was in last place. They had started the competition strong, winning the first team challenge, but a series of mistakes moved them down the leaderboard.
Waneek had to select one player to climb a 65-metre rope net to the Myra-Bellevue Trestle Bridge above. Em Donkers was out of the game due to Covid and both Victoria Coman and Dilpreet Bhuttal wanted to take a shot at redemption. Dilpreet was a new addition to Team Yellow; she had been traded from Team Red in the previous round.
Waneek chose Dilpreet. "I am 150% ready. There's no doubt in my mind at all. It's do or die," says Dilpreet who needed a first or second-place finish to keep her new team in the game, "I am going to give every single ounce of my body."
Watch the action on CBC Sports Reacts.
"I know we're going home today and that breaks my heart but that's not my mentality. I don't quit. I can't just hang there. I have to finish it," said Dilpreet about the moment she got caught up in the rope net.
"Dilpreet walked away feeling really bad," said Coach Waneek, "But if you absolutely give everything you have and you try hard, you gotta walk away with your head held high." There were tears. "That's the thing about competition. Someone wins and someone has to go home. And that was unfortunately us."
"It was a lot of pressure. Not going to lie. You know, being the person that was told, okay, is literally on you for us to advance," Dilpreet told CBC Sport Reacts.
In 2000, Waneek lead Canada's water polo team at the Sydney Olympic Games. They placed fifth. "I had given everything I could and I felt like a complete failure," remembers Waneek. "One of the things that really has always bothered me about this Western concept of success where only if you become the Olympic champion, you're a success. That's not right."
It's the personal effort that counts, believes Waneek, "If you spend your life waiting for external validation of whether you're a success or not, you are going to be at the mercy of someone else your whole life."
Team Yellow is going home, but they leave feeling proud of their effort and grateful for the opportunity to participate.
