Since 2016, the people behind RBC Training Ground have set up events across the country in the hopes of uncovering Canada’s next great Olympian through rigorous fitness testing.
In an effort to reach as many amateur athletes as possible, RBC Training Ground co-ordinator Cole Vincent told the Thompson Citizen that this program is expanding to include several new communities this year, including Thompson on April 27.
“Last year we had some amazing stories of athletes travelling from Cross Lake, Flin Flon, The Pas to Winnipeg for some of our events, so we wanted to bring it a little closer to them this year,” he said.
The Thompson Regional Community Centre (TRCC) will play host to one of RBC Training Ground’s qualifying events next month, where local athletes aged 14 to 25 will get the chance to showcase their fitness levels through sprinting, shuttle runs, vertical jumps and isometric mid-thigh pulls.
“From there, national sports organizations can mine the data … and they will invite selected athletes who performed at a high level to sports specific testing,” said Vincent. “It will happen either in spring or summer, so they will invite these athletes out to their hub, whether it’s Calgary or Victoria … and then from there there’s a national final event Sept. 14-15 in Calgary.”
Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a top-tier athlete, Vincent said RBC Training Ground also provides participants with the opportunity to connect with representatives of major sports organizations.
“I believe we’re going to be driving up with a lot of Canadian Sport Centre [Manitoba] staff,” he said. “So hopefully we can network and meet these people and put faces to names so that, as every athletes develops throughout their sport career, we now know who they are.”
In promotional material for the lead-up to this year’s qualifying events, RBC Training Ground representatives claim they’ve tested 5,500 athletes, identified 600 high-potential competitors and handed out $1.3 million in athletics funding since the program began back in 2016.
“We really want to find that untapped potential,” said Vincent. “Sometimes it’s people who haven’t tried a specific sport or people who have somehow managed to fly under the radar of a lot of the national sports organizations.”
Northern Manitoba athletes looking to participate in the upcoming Thompson event can register at www.cbc.ca/olympics/trainingground.
Anyone who encounters barriers to online registration can also sign-up by contacting Iris Murray, Sport Manitoba’s sport development officer for the Norman Region, directly at 204-778-3109.
RBC Training Ground’s April 27 event in Thompson is set to kick off at the TRCC at 9 a.m.
