68 local amateur athletes tested themselves at the Ottawa RBC Training Ground on Feb. 1 at the University of Ottawa in hopes of becoming the next set of Olympians to represent Canada.
Since 2015, the program has sought to recruit an undiscovered batch of Olympic athletes. Athletes from ages 14 to 25 are tested on their power, strength, speed and endurance to match them with an ideal Olympic sport.
This is the fifth year RBC has hosted the cross-Canada program, to help make the Olympic dreams of young athletes come true and introduce them to unusual sports.
“This is how a lot of athletes start their Olympic careers, this is how I started mine … and it evolved into a seven year career on the national team and an Olympic games,” Cody Sorenson from the Sochi 2014 Team Canada bobsled team said.
“I think that’s part of the message we’re trying to get across, that just because you haven’t started a sport when you’re 20, doesn’t mean it’s too late to make the games and have a career in that sport.”
The top competitors from Ottawa and 12 other cities will compete in the national finals, where a select 30 will be chosen to be sponsored by RBC and continue training for their Olympic dream.
In Ottawa, representatives from boxing, snowboarding, canoe kayak, cycling, freestyle skiing, nordic combined skiing, ski jumping, rugby, rowing and speed skating all scouted local talent to fill their rosters.
For the athletes themselves, it was mostly about getting the opportunity to learn about different sports, but especially finding out how they fare in the tests.
Emelyn Rodgers from the Carleton University varsity rowing team has competed in a similar competition in the past, which got her into rowing.
“I just wanted to see where I end up compared to my last results, and to see how I bettered myself in different categories,” she said. “And I did alright! I’m happy with my results, I improved myself in different ways and I’m glad where things will bring me next.”
Zach Theodore, 14, was among the youngest participating that morning.
“I think I did pretty well,” he said. “I was competing against myself, and I think I did good in the end.”
His parents, Leslie and Andrew came out to watch the whole process.
“It was great fun seeing all these kids doing this, he was working hard, I think it’s a great opportunity for them to get evaluated in a common ground,” his mother Leslie Theodore said.
Nerves are often at an all-time high for the young athletes, says Derek O’Farrell, a member of the London 2012 Team Canada rowing team, who was watching on along with other former RBC athletes.
“They feel a lot of pressure, we’re just here to kind of try and tell them to relax and be themselves and hopefully that’ll help their performance,” says O’Farrell.
Despite the sucess of the program for past athletes like O’Farrell and RBC being a partner with the Olympics since 1947, this is potentially the last round of official testing as the contract is up after this year–leaving athletes to turn to other programs.
But Danielle Gelineau from Canadian Sport Institute Ontario is optimistic this partnership will continue.
“It’s because of them that we’ve been able to identify some athletes that are going to have potential to be at the next games,” she said. “It’s really exciting for us to be able to test this many athletes and see if we can transform some of those athletes into future Olympians, it’s been a really great partnership.”
The RBC Training Ground will continue looking for potential Olympians across Canada throughout February and March.
Feature image by Melissa Marchewka.
