Olympic champ part of Halifax startup
Olympian Surin keeps close eye on Halifax startup’s slow beginning
Canadian sports hero Bruny Surin, 54, has learned an important lesson based on his investment in a Halifax sports performance startup: keep your eye on the ball.
Montreal-based Surin hung up his sprinter's spikes in 2002 to focus on business. Since that time he has become a popular motivational speaker, has his own active-wear clothing line, has real estate investments in Quebec and Florida, and participated in helping finance Athletigen.
Athletigen links genetic information with training data in a way that athletes and their coaches can use to improve performance.
The Halifax company is the brainchild of former Dalhousie University track and field captain, academic all-canadian and one-time Mount St. Vincent professor Jeremy Koenig, who is the CEO.
The company was developed on the premise that knowing one's DNA would assist athletes to determine their individual strengths and weaknesses, which could be used to create a personalized training agenda. That concept also has potential to help non-athletes address physical issues, as well, says Surin.
However, like many businesses, Athletigen seemed to have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Company activity appeared to stop, and Surin said he had difficulty reaching Koenig to find out what was happening. He was concerned that perhaps his investment might have been lost.
That was when Surin sent me an email in which he indicated he thought Athletigen was supposed to sponsor Olympic athletes and was alarmed that perhaps investors' money and grants the company received were not being used as initially proposed.
“I wanted to get Olympian athletes with us, and I want us to sponsor athletes with potential at the Olympics,” Surin said in an interview.
Attempts to contact Koenig by phone for this article also failed.
Surin said his investment in Athletigen was not in the millions, and he did receive an email stating that, rather than producing genetic testing kits, Athletigen is now focused on the more educational aspect of linking DNA with athletic performance.
Based on his sprinter background, Surin said he likes “to do things well and fast” and Athletigen sales were much too slow for his satisfaction.
An Olympic gold medalist in the 4x100 metre relay at the 1996 Atlanta Games, along with teammates Donovan Bailey, Glenroy Gilbert and Robert Esmie, Surin is getting ready to travel to Japan for the July 23 opening of the Tokyo Games, where he will provide Frenchlanguage track and field commentary for Radio Canada.
“But to tell you the truth, there are so many (complicated) logistics and COVID tests here and there, it's not fun, not fun. But you've got to do what you've got to do,” he said.
Born in Haiti, Surin immigrated to Canada when he was seven. His family settled in Montreal, where he still lives with his wife, Bianelle Legros, and two athletic daughters: Kimberly, a tennis player, and Katherine, a sprinter.
Surin told me his track and field career helped him make connections in the business world. After he quit sprinting competitively in 2002, he took some courses to help with his desire to become a more complete entrepreneur.
He made his connection with the Nova Scotia company a couple of years ago in Arizona. Surin said his foundation brought about 20 student athletes to a training camp at the Altis sport performance centre in Phoenix, and while there he was introduced to Koenig.
“I found what he was doing with the testing very interesting and we kept in touch. Later on, he was telling me the company is growing ... and they were doing a round of finance. At that time I was travelling with a business friend and I was telling him about Athletigen and what they do, stuff like that, he really enjoyed it and we came on board.”
Surin acknowledges he was a little angry about being left out of the loop about Athletigen's finances, but more recently he has become satisfied that Koenig has a plan for the company's success.
That said, Surin added that he expects to keep a closer eye on the company's activities and has informed Koenig that he plans to play a greater role in helping to facilitate Athletigen's connection to high-level athletes.