Canada’s women’s field hockey team are pictured at the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, where they placed fourth overall. Next up is an Olympic qualification tournament in Spain next month. OOE’s Kenzie Girgis, sixth from the right, is joined by her Old Ottawa South teammate, goalkeeper Rowan Harris, second from the left. Photo by Field Hockey Canada
Mainstreeter Staff
OOE teen debuts in style for the Canadian women’s national field hockey team at the 2023 Pan Am Games
OOE resident Kenzie Girgis is back in Canada now, fresh off a breakout performance at the 2023 Pan American Games that saw her earn two international caps as a member of Canada’s women’s national field hockey team.
Kenzie was featured in The Mainstreeter this past February, along with her sister Abrie, 25, as the Bower Street residents were both named to Canadian national teams and each prepared for international field hockey competitions, both of which are now concluded. Abrie, 25, was on the Canadian Women’s indoor national team that competed at the 2023 FIH Indoor World Cup in South Africa. Younger sister, Kenzie, 18, was selected to the Women’s national outdoor team for the 2023 Pan American Games tournament just concluded in Santiago, Chile.
The Pan Am Games tournament began brightly for Kenzie and the Canadian Women’s National Team, as they finished second in their preliminary round pool with wins over Cuba (7-0) and Mexico (5-0) and a single loss to the host and eventual bronze medal winner, Chile (0-2). The team slotted into the tournament playoffs in the semi-final dropping a 0-3 decision against Argentina, which finished first in its pool and ultimately took the gold medal. The semi-final loss dropped Canada into the bronze medal game, a return engagement with Chile. In that contest, the Chileans prevailed once again with the same 0-2 score that they recorded over Canada in the preliminary round.
Despite the disappointment of missing out on the bronze medal, Canada’s fourth-place finish was enough to send the team to the next stage of Olympic qualification, an eight team tournament scheduled for January 13th – 21st in Valencia, Spain, thereby keeping their dreams of competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics alive. The last time the Canadian women reached the Olympics was more than 30 years ago. Only the top three teams at the Olympic qualifier will advance to the Paris games. The roster for the Canadian women’s team at the qualifier is scheduled to be announced on December 15th, and Kenzie Girgis and the family fan club are fingers crossed, hoping that she gets named to the squad.
