We're working on it'; City of London, Ont. preparing celebration for Olympians Homecoming

London, Ont. -

Preparations are already underway to recognize the five Olympic gold medallists from London, Ont.

"We're for sure going to do something to celebrate our athletes and that will be in partnership with Tourism London," says Josh Morgan, London's deputy mayor.

"One of the big issues we have to coordinate is obviously the athlete's schedules. They're not just Olympians, but they've got their own careers and their own events and some of them have their own education to get back to. So we've got to work with their schedules, find the right time and get something done over the next little while but Tourism will take the lead."

Still in a pandemic, any celebration will have to have distancing built in, but Morgan says with the city recently hosting an event like Rib Fest with over 100,000 people in attendance over a few days, it can be done.

"I think it'd be just kind of cool to get us together," says Maggie Mac Neil, the Londoner who won three medals in Tokyo, Japan.

"I met Damian, a couple years ago, and I grew up knowing about Jessie because our moms work together at the sexual assault Centre at St. Joe's. So I think just be kind of cool to get us all together we can congratulate each other in person and kind of just talk about our experiences".

The most recent celebration in our region was in 2018 when Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue were the stars of a 'Thank You Ilderton' celebration.

The City of London has recognized Stanley Cup Champions like Drew Doughty and Jeff Carter, and held parades and parties for the London Knights and the Memorial Cup.

1984 Olympic Silver Medallist Angela Schneider feels get together is important.

The Elgin County Archives recently posted this photo of her welcome home 37 years ago.

Elgin County Archives 1984 from the Lashbrook Collection shows local crowd gathering at Rodney, Ont fairgrounds to welcome home Silver Medalist Angela Schneider. (Source: Elgin County Archives)Elgin County Archives 1984 from the Lashbrook Collection shows local crowd gathering at Rodney, Ont fairgrounds to welcome home Silver Medallist Angela Schneider (Source: Elgin County Archives)

"I remember that day in Rodney (Ontario)," says Schneider who is now the director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies (ICOS) at Western University.

"When I came back and talking to young people the title of my talk was 'If I can do it you can do it'. I think that what this does is it gives hope, and inspiration, motivation and excitement. All of those things are so important for our youth right now because the pandemic has really done a number on the youth."

Canada won 23 medals in this year's games, the country's most ever in a non-boycotted Olympics. London was front and centre, with 5 gold's, more than any other city in Canada, and equal to the entire GTA.

"London did amazing and considering we're not one of the big hotspots where we have like a bigger population like Toronto or the GTA it's really incredible that four out of the six gold medals that are coming back to Canada are associated with London," says Mac Neil.

She's been tweeting frequently about her hometown, and it has brought international attention to the Forest City.

London Aquatic Centre on Saturday August 7, 2021 (Brent Lale / CTV News)"I would say a lot of people don't know where London is," says Mac Neil.

"I'll be like oh I'm from London, and people are like England? I'm like no London, Ontario so I think it's a really special; more people are becoming aware of London. I love it. It's small enough, but it's big enough that everyone knows everyone it's just like a gem of Ontario, I guess I would say."

Schneider thinks the recent is exposure is something local officials can capitalize on.

"We need to acknowledge as a city, the strengths of sport in this city," says Schneider.

"I think we could capitalize moving forward to make it an even more inviting place for young people, I mean, we do have great things here by having great educational institutions, and some great facilities but we could really improve in a lot of areas. I think this could be a way for us to take this forward with these folks as our leaders I mean they're incredible advocates for our city."

At this point it could be difficult to coordinate the schedules of all five gold medallists. Susanne Grainger is back in BC with her husband, while Jessie Fleming and Shelina Zadorsky need to return to England to finish their professional seasons. Damian Warner is expected to be returning soon, while Mac Neil is home for a few weeks before she returns to the University of Michigan.