Aspiring athletes get a chance to see if they are potential Olympians

On April 9, Haligonians are invited to come and participate in the RBC Training Ground-sponsored talent search at Canada Games Centre on Thomas Raddall Drive

CITYnews halifax \ Steve Gow

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Local athletes are about to get a unique opportunity to see if they have what it takes to become a future Olympian.

On April 9, the Canadian Olympic Committee’s official talent search will be taking place at the Canada Games Centre on Thomas Raddall Drive.

A free event to the public, all aspiring, regional athletes are invited to register for a chance to test their mettle and discover if they are suited for an Olympic sport.

“It’s for anybody who is 14 to 25-years-old,” says Halifax’s Evan MacInnis, the technical lead for the event. “You don’t need a specific sports background, you don’t need to be a certain height, you don’t need to think you can go to the Olympics — you just have to want to know if you could or not.”

As part of RBC Training Ground, a talent identification program that aims to uncover athletes with Olympic potential and provide them with the resources and funding to achieve their podium dreams, this Saturday is the introductory event to identify key strengths in participants.

“We’ll do some sprints, we’ll do some jumps,” notes MacInnis about what types of tests are involved. “From the score based on your age and gender, you might hit a target from one of our partner sports, and if you do, you would go for sport-specific assessment (at a later date).”

MacInnis adds the entire process from entrance to exit should take about 90 minutes, but it could lead to a life-changing experience.

“We’ve had 11 athletes go to the (Olympic) Games — some in Tokyo and some in Beijing for the Winter Games,” adds MacInnis. “So the program is working. In fact, they came home with seven medals.”

Among the several RBC Training Ground-selected athletes who competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was Kelsey Mitchell — a varsity soccer player-turned-Olympic gold medallist who found herself training in sprint track cycling after being identified at the 2017 talent search.

Bedford’s Anna Negulic was identified at an RBC Training Ground event that same year and is now a member of Canoe Kayak Canada’s national kayak sprint team. As an RBC Olympian, she will be there this weekend to support and speak to athletes about her experience with the program.

“I didn’t know much about it until I started it (but) it’s pretty easy,” says Negulic over Zoom from Georgia, where she is finishing a four-week training camp. She adds online registration is simple and free to the public. “(Then) you show up and basically, they take you through these stations where they’re different tests for speed, endurance, strength and power.”

Talent scouts and officials from various national sport organizations will be on hand to assess each athlete’s test results. Top participants could be selected as RBC Future Olympians and receive potential mentorship and resources to fuel their journey.

“The local coaches for these national sports will be here,” adds MacInnis. “So you could maybe get identified for the Olympic team or you might get identified for the Canada Games team, but you’ll get identified along a pathway somewhere with our nine partner sports, which I think is really exciting because a lot of them are not hockey or soccer — it could be speed-skating, or rugby sevens or kayak.”

Since it began in 2016, the RBC Training Ground program has tested 10,000 athletes across Canada with more than 1,300 being identified as having Olympic potential — many in a sport they had never even considered.

“This program helps confirm that you’re in the right sport or finds that new sport for you, and a program like this will take that spark and add some gas to create a big bonfire for that drive to make the Olympic Games,” says MacInnis, adding that he hopes to see up to 200 registrants take advantage of the April 9 opportunity. “I know if I was a kid, I may not have made it, but I definitely would have signed up.”

To register or for more information, visit the RBC Training Ground website.