Trinity College School celebrated our 156th birthday on April 30th (one day in advance of the actual birthday on May 1st). Despite not being able to fully celebrate on campus, we were pleased to virtually welcome Ghislaine Landry and alumnus Olivia Apps ’16 to present the Centennial Lecture to the community as part of the Mac Campbell Lecture Series.
Ghislaine and Olivia are both professional rugby sevens players and are set to play on team Canada this summer at the Tokyo Olympics.
Ghislaine Landry is one of the most fruitful try scorers in women’s rugby. She has a lot of accomplishments to her name, including a bronze medal with team Canada at the Rio Olympics. She was also named to the 2015-2016 Women’s Sevens World Series (WSWS) Dream Team. And, she holds the second-all time record in WSWS scoring with 475 points.
Olivia Apps started playing rugby in Grade 10 for her local club and the provincial team. After graduating from high school, Olivia joined the national senior women’s team and played her first international match in 2018 for Canada during the WSWS tournament held in Sydney. In 2019, she tore her ACL and was on the road to recovery up until COVID-19 hit.
The team just traveled to Dubai to compete in the Invitational Sevens Tournament, where they ended up winning gold.
Both Ghislaine and Olivia shared the impact COVID-19 had on them and their team, and how they pushed forward to get back on track after the heartbreaking news that they would not participate in the Olympics that were postponed last year. They shared advice and encouragement, and gave the community hope to continue to be positive and continue working hard.
TCS also noticed the genuine friendship and personalities of the two. It was the little comments and references to the School that Oliva made that brought smiles to our faces and made us appreciate the relationships we have, even more.
Trinity College School would like to thank them both for a touching talk and we wish both Ghislaine and Olivia, along with Team Canada, the best of luck at the Olympics this summer.
- By Natasha Pinto, communications steward
