Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist and youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate, once asked of women to be brave when noting not everyone can succeed when half are held back.
“To embrace the strength within themselves and realize their full potential,” she added.
And in these current Rio Summer Olympics, the women competitors, including Canada's magnificent females in the pool, have done just that, inspiring others along the way through example.
These games, swirling beforehand with non-stop chatter about Rio's political, social and environmental problems, have thankfully moved to the glory of pure sport.
The Canadian girls, whether they medal or not, have taken to the pool, the track and to the field and showed everyone back home and abroad how its supposed to be done – with heart, perseverance and a devil-be-damned attitude against all naysayers.
The results in the pool made by sixteen-year-old Penny Oleksiak have been especially unimaginable, and ones that left everyone awestruck and inspired.
A gold, silver and two bronze. Oleksiak is the first Canadian summer athlete to win four medals at one Olympics. She collected her gold after being in seventh place at the 50-metre mark in the women's 100-metre freestyle, and then powering her way to catch up to American Simone Manuel in an Olympic-record time of 52.70 seconds.
Both girls got gold, but Oleksiak claimed another first that no one will ever be able to touch. She became the first Olympian born this century to win individual gold in any event. The young woman, who came to the games with a goal to just do her best, proved hard work and sportsmanship can pay off.
But hold on, we can't for a second forget the magnificent American Manuel, who demonstrated her own enviable sportsmanship by locking herself in a heartfelt embrace with the Canadian after the race. Manuel's gold medal performance was also a special first. She became the first black female swimmer to win an Olympic gold, a triumph she hopes will inspire greater diversity in her sport.
"I hope I can be an inspiration for others. This medal is for the people who come behind me and get into the sport,” Manuel told the media after her own brilliant performance.
Meanwhile, there is still this fixation with many Canadians that this Olympic games will not be a success unless their athletes produce more and more medals. Well, sure they're nice and glittery but with the rest of the week to go before the Rio games closes, Canadian women have already won big time.
With the Olympic movement spinning its wheels before the Rio games on what should be done to the Russians over the mounting evidence of state-sponsored doping across many sports, the time might be right to think about a new class of medals for those winners who inspire others to follow the sacred values of true sportsmanship, ones that build character during and outside sports competitions.
If that interests the big shots of the International Olympic Committee they can start with a pair of athletes who have already stood proudly together on a winning podium - Oleksiak and Manuel. And what is equally amazing, their triumphant journey has only begun.
