Pitt QB Christian Veilleux Has Olympic Dreams

The Pitt Panthers' starting quarterback hopes to represent his home country in the Olympics.

PITTSBURGH -- The world of American football will only grow larger over the coming decade and Pitt Panthers quarterback Christian Veilleux wants to be a part of it. 

Flag football will make its debut as an officially sanctioned part of the Summer Olympics beginning in 2028, the International Olympic Committee announced last week, when the games are hosted in Los Angeles, California. Veilleux still has at least two more seasons of college football at Pitt (and hopefully the start of an NFL career) to play before that time arrives but as a Canadian native, if the call comes to represent his country, he plans to answer. 

"I’ll jump on that opportunity if and when it comes to me," Veilleux said. "I haven’t gotten it yet but I would love to be the guy for 2028.”

There are already a few other talented Canadian quarterbacks playing professional and college football in the United States right now that he would have to beat out to earn a spot on his national team. 

Veilleux said the Rourke brothers, Nathan - a former Ohio University standout and current member of the Jacksonville Jaguars practice squad - and Kurtis - who has excelled in the starting job for the Bobcats after his brother's graduation - come to mind first. There will also likely be a new generation of Canadians coming up through high school and college ranks to contend with as well, but Veilleux believes he should be in the conversation and would be honored to play for Team Canada in the first Olympic football competition.

As for his credentials, Veilleux's life on the gridiron began as a kid, when he played flag football to learn the basics. And that continued all the way through the present day, when he runs pass skeleton drills that mirror the kind of limited-contact football that will be played in the Olympics. 

“I played flag football when I was a kid. That’s really how I grew up and learned the game," Veilleux said. "It was really like a year but as you play regular tackle football, you have those seven-on-seven games which is kind of like the same thing. It’s really just skelly, to be honest with you. So yeah, I’m pretty used to that.”

American football is going international and Pitt's Canadian signal-caller is all-in on it. 

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