Alliston’s Rose returns home with soccer gold

ALLISTON, ONT. -

Alliston’s Deanne Rose is home from Tokyo an Olympic champion.

Rose and the Canadian women’s soccer team captured gold Friday in Japan five years after earning Bronze at the Rio games in Brazil.

“We wanted it so bad, and I think the reason we got it is because from the beginning of the tournament, we just believed in each other, and we just believed we were going to change the colour of the medal,” said Rose hours after arriving on home soil in Toronto.

“It makes me feel proud. I love repping Alliston. I love where I came from,” said the 22-year-old soccer star who grew up in Alliston and earned the Olympic bronze medal while still a student at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School in Tottenham.

Rose became the youngest woman in Olympic soccer history to score a goal at the 2016 games and was pivotal in Canada’s victory in Japan.

Rose entered the match with Canada trailing Sweden. She was a catalyst on the goal that evened the score and made good on a promise to her mother the night before the big game when she scores in the dramatic penalty shootout to keep Canada’s gold medal hopes alive.

“The thing with the Olympics is everybody has a different role with the team, and I was coming in as an impact player, so for me, I know I’m coming in fresh, the opposition is tired, so I just have to execute, and that’s what happened,” explained Rose, who graduated from the University of Florida prepares to begin her professional soccer career in England as a member of Reading F.C.

“Being a pro is a different feeling, and I think it’s just going to put me in the position to elevate, be focused and keep going in the right direction.”

A veteran of two Olympics, Rose expects to be in the prime of her career by the time she suits up for the 2024 games in Paris, while she sets her sights on leading the Canadian squad in 2023 at the Women’s World Cup.