In the time leading up to the naming of the Canadian Olympic men’s team, Neville and Keven Wilson rarely, if ever, spoke about the possibility that their son, Tom, would be named to the team.
This is even though they knew their son wanted more than anything to represent his country at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
“Tom very much wanted to represent his country. It's one of the things he had that he wanted most in the world to do, and never did it as a junior. So, this was for sure on his dream list, therefore on ours as well,” Neville recalled during a conversation in Milan.
“But then you almost don't dare wish for it to happen, because it's such a remote possibility, and the guys on the team are so good. So, we hoped, but didn't express it out loud too much,” she explained.
Keven and Neville happened to be in Washington visiting Tom and his wife, Taylor, and their young son, Teddy, when the Olympic rosters were announced. They were told that the players would be called by 8 a.m. EST and if they didn’t get a call, they weren’t on the team.
“So, we're all downstairs and little Teddy's in his pajamas, and it's 8 o'clock, and it's 8:01, and Tom's starting to pace a little bit, and then it's 8:02, and the phone rang, and then he gave us the thumbs up,” Neville said.
“It’s incredibly fulfilling for your child. Because you know there's been so many ups and downs. So, it's nice to see sometimes the stars align, and in Tom's case, you know, he's definitely had ups and downs in his career, as well as health and knee injuries and all kinds of things. So that was an incredible moment,” said Neville, who is an executive coach.
Keven, a Montreal native who had a long career in banking and went to university in Kingston, Ontario, before moving to Toronto. He met his future wife on a blind date. They played tennis and were partners.
The couple has three boys, with Tom being the middle child.
Pete, the oldest, started playing hockey when he was seven. When his parents took him to the sporting goods store, Tom, not yet three years of age, came along and threw a tantrum until his parents agreed to buy him skates. They also bought him little hockey pants for the inevitable spills on the ice and that’s how it all began.
Keven and Neville were both involved in youth hockey coaching and the like. Keven built a big rink in the family’s expansive backyard using old doors for boards and often Tom would tag along with his older brother and his pals for extended shinny sessions.
He played AA hockey instead of AAA as the family tried to keep the fun element of the game paramount for Tom.
But by the time he was in his early teens, people were telling Keven and Neville that Tom was destined to be an NHL player. They were right.
The Wilsons discovered what many NHL families discover, and that’s how the family dynamic changes with an elite hockey player in the household. How there are ripple effects with the travel and the time and financial commitments.
“You have other family members and other priorities to consider,” Neville said. The family often jokes that whenever something major happens for Tom, there’s bound to be a parallel event for his older brother.
For instance, Pete got married in the summer of 2018. That happened to be the summer Wilson won a Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals and the family hosted Tom’s day with the Cup. It turned out the family used the same venue for both celebrations, including the same flowers etc.
More recently, Pete and his wife had their first child which prevented them from attending the Olympics. In fact, Neville and Keven delayed their trip to Milan to make sure they could help celebrate the birth of their second grandchild back home.
As it turned out, they watched Tom’s first game as an Olympian on television back home and then saw his second game live in Italy.
While many of the Canadian families have built strong relationships through other international competitions, including last winter’s 4 Nations Face-Off, this is all brand new for the Wilsons, meeting the other Canadian players’ families and spending time together watching the games and seeing the sights.
Yet there is something familiar to it all.
“It sort of feels to me like a giant away trip when the kids were like 14,” Neville said. “And the parents are all on the bus together. And somebody's child is screaming, and somebody's yelling, and they're singing a song, and cheering, and just little stories. You hear snippets from kind of where people are from. It just makes it very personal and very real. And you realize there's so much family behind all these players. It's just very gratifying.”
It seems trite to say it, but the fact is for many of the families who have joined the players in Milan, regardless of which jersey they wear, this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity. And it should be treated as such.
The Wilsons certainly are, and they have relished the process of packing and preparing for their trip, anticipating what was ahead for their son the Olympian and how they would fit into the Olympic machinery.
“We treated ourselves to business class because we've never done that before and I’m like, ‘we're doing it this time.’ So that was fun. And then we took photos on the plane. Just trying to soak up every minute of it,” Neville said.
They have taken Teddy skating at Canada House and hung around Tom as much as his schedule has allowed.
“You learn to really appreciate every little moment. Every little meal, or every little skate on the ice at Canada House,” Neville said.
They also met figure skating legend Scott Moir. “I told him I thought he was a hero. He was just so sweet,” Neville said.
And, of course, they have trekked with the other families to the main hockey rink in Milan to watch Team Canada.
“It's kind of hard to explain because we're used to seeing him in the big leagues. But this is a whole other level of the big leagues,” Neville said.
If there’s a moment that sums up the Wilsons’ experience at these Olympics, it might have been during the nerve-wracking overtime win over Czechia in the quarterfinals. But it wasn’t necessarily Mitch Marner’s goal – although that was a welcome relief – but rather watching their grandson Teddy having a baby chat with Mitch Marner’s youngster, Miles, who was sitting with Marner family in the row in front of the Wilsons.
“And they were having a child moment, and everybody's there helping each other,” Neville said.
And then to see how happy the Marners were after the Canadian win, well, that brought home the community to which they now belong – the Olympic family community.
“I think just watching how excited the Marners were ... Like it was just pure excitement, pure joy, pure pride. It was incredible. And just having them be right there, because of course coming from Toronto, seeing Mitch Marner a fair bit, you know, he's had a bit of a bumpy ride there as well,” Neville said. “So, to see people celebrated, knowing how much hard work and up and down there is in the sport, it's just a great moment for us.”
For Neville, the time in Milan has reminded her of why she and Keven and her family fell in love with the game all those years ago.
“My philosophy is that hockey brings people together,” Neville said. “That's the best part of it. I'm texting people I know at home, family, clients. People come out of the woodwork. I'm going to have a client come in from Germany with her family to see us just because she's close by. We haven't seen her in 15 years. So, it draws people in. That's the best part of it.”
After a second straight nail-biting win in the elimination stage of the tournament, this one 3-2 over Finland in the semifinal, Team Canada and Tom Wilson are off to the gold medal game on Sunday.
But here’s the thing. If Canada doesn’t win a gold medal, yes, it will be a big disappointment.
“But I really feel like he's a winner being on the team,” Neville said. “And truly, I feel that way. So, the rest is gravy, really.”
(Feature photo courtesy of Getty Images)