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Canadian decathlon gold medalist Damian Warner shares tribute to Mom

by Matthew Renfrew

“You can do anything you set your mind to.”

Earlier this week, Canadian decathlon gold medalist Damian Warner shared a touching post on Instagram, with photos of his Tokyo 2020 Olympics journey to victory. The post starts out with Warner on the podium receiving his gold medal and ends with a shot of him carrying the Canadian flag at the closing ceremony, followed by his massive 8.24m long jump. The caption, however, a quote from his mom, puts everything into context:

“You can do anything you set your mind to.”

—Mom
Canadian decathlon gold medalist Damian Warner shares tribute to Mom

Damian Warner has spoken before about the influence that his mom Brenda Philpott, has had on his career.

“When I think about the position that I’m in now, the competitions that I’ve been to and the places that I’ve travelled, and just the experiences that I’ve had, it all ties back to my mom and the lessons that she taught me. She’s been the most special person to me in my whole life. Everything that I have and everything that I will have is because of her.”

—Damian Warner

Warner had not posted on Instagram since July 23, the day the Tokyo 2020 Olympics began. (Not too surprising, considering the heavy training regimen required for the decathlon.)

Following Damian Warner’s win, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau released the following statement, proclaiming that “the ‘World’s Greatest Athlete’ is a Canadian!”

This was the first Olympic gold medal for Damian Warner, following a bronze medal at Rio 2016.

For more on Team Canada, please visit their website. To watch coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Canada via CBC, please click here.

For more sports coverage, please visit the Sports section.

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by Matthew Renfrew

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