Manitoba's Van Landeghem propelled by crowd to Pan Am wins

Manitoba's ChantalVan Landeghem, 21,stole the show on the opening night of swimming competition,finishing with two gold medals and two Pan Am records.

• Pan Am: What you need to know for Wednesday in Hamilton

Her parents, Wayne and Dinah Van Landeghem, watched all of the excitementunfold from their home in Winnipeg Tuesday night.

"[She's] really excited. And she could not get over the crowd. She said this is the first time where she actually could feel the crowd and hear the crowd. She said 100 per cent of the last 20 metres, the crowd like pulled her," Wayne said Wednesday.

He believes the double gold will give his daughterthe confidence she needs to achieve her next goal,makingCanada's Olympic team.

Three years ago, while trying to qualify for the London Olympics, VanLandeghemfinished 0.01secondoff of the qualifying time.

Canada's crown jewel

Chantal's former coach of six years, Tom Hainey, says Chantal is Canada'scrown jewel in the 100-metre freestyle event. So the wins didn't surprise the coach at all.

Tuesday, Chantal beat out 12-time Olympic medallist Natalie Coughlin from the U.S. Chantal has the physical advantage over many of her competitors, measuringsix feetthree inches tall.

"I was so happy for her. When you coach an athleteand you go through what we went through together,the highs and lowsthe low being missing the Olympic team by a hundredth of a second and for her to do that in front of a home town crowd. That's where she trains, that's her home pool now. It's awesome," Hainey said.

"Her progress has been outstanding. And once we saw how she reacted to missing the team, I knew it was just a matter of time. She is a very big girl. Tall. And it takes long time for tall women to gain strength, no matter what you do."