Hamilton native pro-golfer Alena Sharp is gearing up to head to Paris next month for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Sharp will be making her third appearance representing Canada at the world’s biggest stage. Her family the feeling of pride is just as full as the first time.
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It was a bit of a nerve wracking couple of weeks for the Sharp family. “Well we’ve been following the points, for the last couple of weeks, so we kind of thought she would be asked to go, but when it finally did happen it was a relief.”
Golf Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee announced that Alena Sharp as well as Smith Falls’ Brooke Henderson would represent the red and white at the women’s golf competition at the Paris games with the four-round tournament taking place Aug. 7 to 10 at Le Golf National.
In a statement, Sharp said, “Reaching the Olympics for a third time was a huge goal of mine coming into this year and I am extremely proud to have achieved it… representing Canada is the highest honour I’ve had in my career.”
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Sharp’s father, John, a retired Hamilton high school teacher spoke to CHCH News while on a break while serving as a rules official at the Ontario amateur championships at St. Catharines Golf and Country Club.
John says it’s always special to see his daughter represent not just Canada, but her hometown as well.
“Well she grew up in Hamilton, she played all her junior golf in the Hamilton area, she won a number of tournaments in the Hamilton area and got her scholarship out of Hamilton at St. Thomas Moore, so when you look at the wall of fame of athletes in Hamilton, I’m hoping one day she will be there.”
It will be the third time Sharp and Henderson will play for gold at the Olympics after having both competed together in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in the 2020 games.
John says he has heard of many young women who his daughter and Henderson have inspired to pick up the clubs and hit the links.
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“I’ve spoken to a lot of the parents of girls who play on the junior tour here in Ontario and they ask me how she’s doing and that she has been an inspiration to some of the girls, obviously Brooke’s been a little bit more cause she’s been a bit more successful, but it’s a good thing.”
Sharp and Henderson, join Nick Taylor and Corey Conners in Paris who were announced as the two male golfers named to the Olympic team last week.