Future Olympian??

We were watching Heartland a couple  weeks ago and Austin and Hanna saw a commercial for an RBC Training Ground. It is a one-day try-out for future Canadian Olympians sponsored by RBC Bank. Austin told Hanna she should apply, and so she did. Then a week later, she got an email that said she was accepted and had to reply within 24 hours.  The training was in Vancouver, British Columbia. After much thought and discussion, we decided she should take the opportunity, and that I would fly with her to Vancouver. The next 4 days Hanna was as sick as she has ever been with a fever, chills, aches, cough, etc.  Luckily she started to improve by the time we left.

So Hanna and I drove to Calgary and flew to Vancouver. We had reserved a hotel room near the Richmond Olympic Oval where the event was held. This was Hanna's first ever experience flying. She thought the airport experience would be more chaotic like on the movies. She was surprised how calm it was. She liked the take-off but then she wasn't that impressed with how squishy the airplane seemed.  We landed in Vancouver and took the sky train to where our hotel was. As we neared our stop, we realized we were surrounded by Oriental people.  We were in a mini China. We ate dinner at the mall on our way to the hotel.  Hanna thought we looked like homeless people carrying our two backpacks and one suitcase with us every where we went.

The next morning we walked to Richmond Olympic Oval. We didn't know exactly what to expect. We were excited and a bit nervous. She registered and was weighed and measured.  They had 4 Olympians who were at the Training Grounds who spoke throughout the day.  There were 100 kids ages 14-25.  Hanna was one of the youngest. She looked like a skinny white girl compared to some of the athletes. They each did four stations - power, speed, strength and endurance. 

At the end of the day, they announced the top athlete who gets to go and watch the summer olympics in Brazil and who will receive funding for Olympic training.  There were other sport organizations there, too, scouting for athletes -like the cycling team, rowing, etc.  

Hanna had put in her application that she played basketball, ran track and competed in rodeo.  She was known as the cowgirl. A reporter from the Vancouver Sun had called and interviewed her a few days before we went. In the opening speech, the Olympian talked about how varied the background of the athletes - from rodeo to ballet.  She was interviewed by two different tv stations and they both knew that she competed in rodeo.

This it the winner of the competition. She was in Hanna's group. Someday when she is famous, we can say that we met her.

Hanna waiting for the sky train back to the airport.

The whole event was cool but not as beneficial as we expected. We soon realized that she wasn't going to be the winner. We realized that being an Olympian is not exactly her dream - you have to completely live in training for years and years.  They never gave us any indication of her scores or how she compared to the other athletes.  When it was over, there were still many hours until our flight home, but we were tired and didn't really feel like doing anything else, so we hung out at the airport for a really long time. 

This is Hanna's new dream job -- to drive the carts around the airport carrying passengers.

We landed back in Calgary at midnight, drove home and crawled into bed at 3:30 am.  I woke up at 9:10 and we still made it to church by 9:50.  We sat down in church and Carly said, "I forgot to brush my teeth."  Hanna and I did enjoy our Sunday afternoon naps that day.

Here are the newspaper articles:

BY GARY KINGSTON, VANCOUVER SUN FEBRUARY 19, 2016

Rock climbing and Ultimate Frisbee are not yet part of the Olympic sports program, although it could well happen as the International Olympic Committee attempts to remain relevant to the next generation.

Climbing is one of five sports that will be voted on this summer as a potential addition to the schedule for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games. And last August, the IOC officially recognized Ultimate Frisbee’s international governing body, making it eligible for possible inclusion.

But two teenage British Columbians have decided to see whether their Olympic dreams might be achieved quicker in a sport with a more established pedigree.

Hannah Block, 18, of New Westminster and Emily Ip, 19, of Richmond are two of 100 young athletes who will take part today in RBC Training Ground, a new collaboration between the bank, which is a longtime sponsor of Olympic athletes, the CBC, the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Olympic Foundation.

The athletes, between the ages of 14 and 25, responded to a television and YouTube ad campaign designed to help sport officials uncover those with Olympic podium potential in sports the athletes may not have considered. They will be put through a series of tests at the Richmond Olympic Oval to determine their level of strength, speed, power and endurance.

Officials from seven national sport organizations will be on hand to assess the athletes. Similar events will be held in Toronto, Montreal and Halifax over the next month.

“I’m taking it as a unique opportunity … to connect and meet with people involved in a number of sports, people who live and breathe sport,” says Block, who has competed in Italy and New Caledonia in the climbing discipline of bouldering on artificial walls.

“I’m excited to see Olympians and maybe work with them and see what potential opportunities are out there and what the future can hold.”

A former dancer, Block says she believes her flexibility and the strength she’s gained through climbing will serve her well.

The diminutive Ip, who ran a little track and played volleyball and basketball in elementary and high school and now is on the badminton team at Langara College, calls herself “a sports person.” She’s played Ultimate for three years, including a year with the Under-17 provincial team.

Her interest was piqued by the RBC Training Ground ad, in which a girl dashes out of her front door and sprints after her missed school bus as an announcer asks: “Have you ever wondered if one day, you could become an Olympian … and compete on the world’s biggest stage?”

Ip become even more intrigued after learning 10 athletes from each of the four events will be eligible for financial assistance, coaching and mentorship to continue their training.

One athlete from each of the four cities will also be sent to Rio de Janeiro to attend the Summer Games. They’ll get the chance to watch how Canada’s top athletes prepare for their lifetime moments.

“I didn’t really think about being an Olympic athlete from the ad, I can’t really dream that far,” Ip says. “But I’m pretty athletic and I’d like to know more about the whole process of getting to be an Olympic athlete.

“And what intrigued me the most,” she says with a laugh, “was that trip.”

A bigger pool

Officials admit it’s an enticing carrot, as is the potential profile gained by CBC’s plans to create three- and five-minute vignettes on the more promising athletes. Those vignettes will be aired as part of the CBC’s Road to the Olympic Games coverage and put up on the RBC Training Ground website.

“It’s an incentive, a real incentive,” says Kurt Innes, the director of talent development for the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific and a man heavily involved in putting together the Training Ground program. “It would be foolish to think it’s not important to put that out there.

“But that’s one short-term incentive. We’re looking for a long-term commitment, to find people who have what it takes from a physical and mental perspective because it is a long road.

“At the same time, it’s going to be pretty cool for the best on the day to receive that prize. If somebody goes to Rio and they see the Olympics as really exciting and they want to do this and they understand the years of preparation. It would be a great story after the fact, that this is where the dream began, this is where it was put in motion.”

Innes notes the Canadian Sport Institute has been running smaller Podium Search programs in B.C. for the last four years and various national sport federations have done work on athlete identification.

All of it is designed to increase the talent pool, something critically important in a country such as Canada.

“We don’t have a deep enough talent pool, certainly not when we’re competing against countries like China and the U.S., who have hundreds times the population.”

The Training Group concept, for which the participating parties signed a five-year commitment, looks like it should help. There were more than 200 applicants for today’s event and an amazing 350 for the Toronto session.

The sports represented today include athletics, women’s rugby sevens, canoe/kayak, rowing, cycling and bobsleigh/skeleton.

Innes says the testing for speed, power, strength and endurance “are basic characteristics that underpin all those sports.”

“How fast they can run, how high they can jump, all the sports have their basic benchmarks. If athletes can come in and meet the minimal benchmarks, they’ll move into the assessment phase with that sport.”

Finding the right fit

Bobsleigh Canada has been one of the successful Canadian federations in taking athletes from other sports and turning them into successful sliders. Canada’s No. 1 male driver, Justin Kripps of Summerland, was a track athlete at SFU, while Jesse Lumsden and Samuel Giguere (football) and Alex Kopacz (shot put) have become top calibre brakemen.

Running back Brandon Deschamps, who completed his UBC career with a Vanier Cup title last year, will be at today’s event.

The 23-year-old Prince George native, who will go to training camp in late spring with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, admits football is his top priority right now, but says he “fell in love” with bobsled while watching the 2010 Olympics on television.

“I said then that if I had a chance to pursue that in any way, I’d take a shot,” says Deschamps, who played hockey and soccer and skied while growing up. “My plan is to play football and I want to see how well I can do, but I like to compete. I think that’s one of the fundamental qualities of athletes, that desire to compete.

“If it’s not football or bobsleigh, I’m open to something else. This is a chance to just get my name out there.”

While Deschamps will be one of the older athletes at the event, one of the youngest will be 14-year-old Hannah Nunn of Cardston, Alta.

“I saw the TV commercial,” says the ninth grader. “I didn’t really think any of it, but my dad said, ‘Hannah, you should look at that.’”

The daughter of a former rodeo cowboy, Hannah has run some track in school and plays basketball. She has also competed in rodeo for six years.

“I rope and goat-tie.”

Between the running, roping and her chores on the family ranch, Nunn says “I’m in pretty good condition. And living on the ranch is pretty good for building strength.”

Her mom flew into Vancouver with her on Friday night and she’s keen to see if she’s got what it takes to be directed into an Olympic sport.

“It’s so hard and you have to dedicate your whole life to it. But I want to see where I kind of stand among everyone else and hopefully learn from the people around me.”

gkingston@vancouversun.com

Road to Olympics begins in the Lower Mainland for young athletes

CTV Vancouver
Published Saturday, February 20, 2016 3:37PM PST
Last Updated Sunday, February 21, 2016 5:54PM PST

Athletes around the world are in their final stages of training and qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - but in Richmond, B.C. a group of athletes gathered Saturday to set their sights on a different competition.

“My goal is 2020 Tokyo,” said Matthew Kehler, a 17-year-old sprint kayaker from Maple Ridge.

Kehler was one of 100 young athletes between the ages of 14 to 25 invited to participate in the first of four “RBC Training Ground” events that hope to identify some of Canada’s best young athletes and begin grooming them for future Olympic competition.

The goal of the program, according to RBC spokesman Matt McGlynn, is to identify “crossover athletes,” who may have reached their peak in popular team sports like hockey or soccer, but have the physical gifts to compete in other sports.

One such athlete is Hanna Nunn, who flew in with her mother from their hometown of Cardston, Alta., on Friday night.

“It's a once in a lifetime experience,” Nunn’s mother Kaylynn said when asked the motivation for making the journey. Nunn’s sports are rodeo and basketball, but she’s not sure what Olympic sport she’d be best suited for.

“Track and field would be my number one choice,” she said. “And then bobsledding or something like that.

As for Kehler, he said he’s happy in kayaking, but still curious what other opportunities might present themselves. If it meant a trip to the Olympics, he says he’d definitely be willing to switch sports.

“I’m here just to try and see what I’m compared to and see if there are any other sports for me,” Kehler said. “It would be probably one of the greatest feelings and accomplishments of my life, being an Olympian.”

At the end of the day, the top 10 athletes were singled out for recognition. Kieanna Stephens of Surrey won the top prize of funding for the duration of her athletic career. The hockey player has been told she may want to consider taking up rowing as well.

“I can’t even process it right now, I can’t believe it’s happening,” Stephens said. “It’s amazing… the more sports the better I guess.”

For other young Canadians dreaming of such an accomplishment, three more Training Ground events are planned - for Montreal, Toronto, and Halifax.