Charlsie Agro
The CBC journalist pushes herself further on the road
’m a very amateur cyclist,” stresses Charlsie Agro. “I’m no expert. I’m still figuring out my gears.”
While it’s true the journalist only took up the sport recently, athleticism is part of her dna. A competitive fire, combined with a need to find constant challenges, races through Agro’s veins faster than a descent of one of the Niagara Escarpment’s harrowing hills near her Mississauga home.
Covering the Pan Am Games for cbc last summer gave the 30 year old a front-row seat to the cycling events. This experience also inspired her to get serious about riding. “The women’s road race was incredible,” recalls Agro, who attended Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia on a field hockey scholarship. “I also got to meet Curt Harnett and follow some of the track cycling. Clearly, I got the bug. After these experiences, I went to my neighbourhood bike store and they hooked me up.”
While cycling is a new hobby, from an early age Agro was taken by the power of a good story and knew journalism was the vocation she would choose. “I was one of those weird kids who always knew what I wanted to do,” she says. “When it was Take Your Kids to Work Day, I called up the editor of the Burlingtonpost and said: ‘I love my parents dearly, but their job is not what I want to do, so can I come spend the day with you?’
“I’ve always had an interest in storytelling and I’m naturally curious,” Agro adds. “I was fortunate when I was in school that nbc and abc were right down the street from our campus, so I applied for internships at both of them. Both accepted me, but I chose nbc as some of my favourite journalists have worked there.”
After graduation, Agro returned to Canada to continue with journalism. Her first job was at chch in Hamilton. From there, she made stops in Victoria, Edmonton and Windsor,
“The thing I love about cycling is that while I’ve never been a fast runner, on the bike, it’s much more of a level playing field.”
Ont., before settling into her current post in Toronto. Today, Agro works as an investigative journalist and host of cbc’s long-running consumer watchdog program Marketplace. When she’s not researching and writing stories, she enjoys riding her Cannondale caad 10 to and from work.
“The thing I love about cycling is that while I’ve never been a fast runner, on the bike, it’s much more of a level playing field,” Agro says. “I’ve taken spin classes and love spinning; your spin instructor is always telling you to visualize a flat road, visualize a hill. Now I’m actually getting to do this on a real road.”
To push herself, Agro signed up for her first road ride this past summer, Bike MS: City to Shore – an 80-mile fundraiser on the eastern U.S. seaboard. “I wanted to give some positive reinforcement to a friend who battles MS,” she explains. “I trained like crazy last year and got up to over 100 km, and then the race was cancelled due to a hurricane. But I ended up raising nearly $1,000. My friend was truly touched.”
This past winter Agro competed in her first indoor triathlon at Mcmaster University in Hamilton. Looking ahead, the journalist plans to compete in her first sprint triathlon. And, if Mother Nature is co-operative, she will also compete in the MS City to Shore ride that was cancelled last year.
“I do a lot of interviews, listening and reading in my job,” Agro says. “When I’m on my bike, I’m not talking or listening to anybody. I’m totally zoning out; it’s my personal time to reflect and soak up everything around me.”