RBC Training Ground gets huge turnout at U of C as over 300 Olympic hopefuls attend

More than 300 Olympic hopefuls tried their hand at 15 different sports in the hopes of one day representing Canada on the world stage. Tyler Barrow reports.

The University of Calgary’s Jack Simpson gym was jammed with Olympic hopefuls Saturday.

Canada’s official Olympic talent search -- RBC Training Ground-- was on campus, giving athletes between 14 and 25 the opportunity to be scouted by 15 different summer and winter Olympic sports.

The program was established to identify new Canadian Olympic talent through testing fitness and recruiting them to a variety of Olympic sports.

Roxy Krankowski, an exercise physiologist with the Canadian Sport Institute Alberta, said Saturday was expected to be busy.

“We actually have the largest number of athletes that have ever signed up ahead of time for the event, which is over about 460 athletes,” Krankowski said. “We’re probably going to be getting over 300 athletes today, which is the largest event we’ve run in Calgary before.”

Krankowski said the results of Saturday’s event will be distributed to national Olympic teams, which identify potential candidates.

“What the sport would do is invite them out to another testing camp, where they’ll also get an opportunity to try out the sport,” Krankowski said. “And sometimes it’s a sport they’ve never tried out before.

“And then if that goes really well, eventually there is an RBC training ground finale event, and then athletes can also receive funding to try out this new sport down the road.”

Representatives from a variety of winter sports, including luge, bobsled and skeleton, were on hand Saturday.

Kelsey Mitchell participated in the 2017 RBC Training Ground.

“I played soccer my whole life,” she said. “Came to this event hoping to find a new sport, and track cycling picked me up.

“And so from there, I got fast tracked with track cycling, and ended up going to the Tokyo Olympics and then Paris as well, and then recently, just attended the Milano Cortina Olympics with bobsleigh.”

Former three-time Olympian and CFL fullback Jesse Lumsden was at the gym Saturday, scouting on behalf of the bobsled team.

Lumsden said a large number of bobsleigh team members come through the RBC Training Ground program.

He said that once an athlete is identified as a potential Olympian, it sometimes becomes a competition between different sports to recruit that particular athlete to their particular sport.

“When we identify someone, then it really becomes a comp -- not a competition, but it’s about how you sell your sport to the athletes,” Lumsden said.

“Here, what I might see in somebody, Rugby Canada or rowing might also see. And then it’s about selling your sport to the athlete, kind of like university recruitment. (And then), you’ve got to convince them that you got the right stuff for you.”

For more information about RBC Training Ground, go here.