Long journey for Island triathlete Sweetland
It was an Olympic medal years in the making for mountain-biker Catharine Pendrel.
The Olympic journey was just as long for triathlete Kirsten Sweetland, but it ended a long way from the podium in 41st place.
Mountain-bike coach Dan Proulx of Victoria admits he didn’t see much promise in the unassuming, and to be honest, he says, not-very-good UVic casual triathlete who showed up one morning on the Hartland trails wanting to ride. But ride she did, all the way to the Olympic podium as Pendrel captured the bronze medal Saturday in the 2016 Rio Games.
She did it still guided by Proulx, the Canadian Olympic mountain-bike coach, making this a story that has come full circle back to that first meeting on Hartland. It became the first of many rides over several years around the Lower Island trails. It led to Island titles, then B.C. championships, and next Canadian accolades. Then came two world championships and Pan Am and Commonwealth Games gold medals. But still the Olympic podium eluded Pendrel, with fourth place at Beijing 2008 and ninth at London 2012.
When Pendrel tumbled to the Rio dirt Saturday to start her third Olympic race, it looked as if she would again come up empty on sport’s greatest stage. Pendrel rallied from the crash and can finally call herself not only an Olympian, but an Olympic medallist.
“It’s unbelievable,” the 35-yearold said in a statement.
“I would have been happy with my career if I didn’t have an Olympic medal, but I’m sure happy I do. We’ve worked so hard for this for so many years, with my coach [Proulx], team, and my husband [Keith Wilson, now of Kamloops, whom she met during a UVic triathlon club practice]. It’s just amazing that it came together.”
Pendrel held off fourth-place fellow-Canadian Emily Batty by two seconds. It was a reprise of the order of their finish in the Canada Cup in March on Bear Mountain, although that was 1-2.
“I am filled with mixed emotions,” said Batty.
“Being 10 metres from a bronze medal . . . it is a heartbreak.”
But there will be more opportunities, vowed Proulx, especially because of the national training centre located on Bear Mountain.
“It’s already accelerating, with our young riders from across the country based in Victoria,” said Proulx.
“We envision creating a place where champion are inevitable . . . a conveyer belt of champions.”
Triathlon Canada, also based in Victoria, launched its Olympic post-Simon Whitfield era in Rio with Amelie Kretz top Canadian woman in 34th and Tyler Mislawchuk top male in an encouraging 15th place.
A distressing array of injuries and illnesses kept Victoria triathlete Sweetland out of the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.
The Stelly’s grad rebounded with silver at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and a strong early Rio qualifying period before being laid low again, this time by a serious bacterial infection, which compromised her preparations for Rio, although she qualified and placed 41st Saturday in her long-awaited Olympic debut at 27.
“I’m obviously disappointed. I would have liked a better result, but I’m just happy I put it all out there and did my best,” said Sweetland, in a statement.
“I didn’t know if I was even going to make the team earlier this year. I gave everything I had to stay in contact . . . I gave it everything I had to the end.”
Island-associated athletes won four medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics. That compares with five each at London 2012 and Beijing 2008.