Olympic hopefuls tested
As the Winter Games end, local athletes hope to begin their journeys
Trevor Yip crouches, pistons his arms upward and catapults himself into an impressive, full-body vertical jump.
“I think I did pretty good,” said the 21-yearold UBC Okanagan Heat rugby player.
“My score was 80.7, which isn’t as good as some of those volleyball guys, but it was in improvement on my first two scores of 75.4 and 78.9.”
Yip, who definitely looks like a buff rugby player with thick, muscular legs, was taking part in Friday’s Royal Bank Training Ground Olympic auditions testing in Kelowna.
Yip had never really thought about going to the Olympics—until now.
“I won’t say it wouldn’t be cool,” said the fourth-year kinesiology student.
“But I have no expectations. I’ve been training hard at school, so I really just came out today to see how I would do. This is free to do, so I might as well do it.”
Rugby Sevens — faster than the 15-player traditional sport — made its debut at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
In addition to the vertical jump to measure power, Yip was also tested at CNC for speed with 30 metre sprints, for strength with an isometric deadlift and for endurance with a 12-minute run of increasing intensity.
In all, 75 athletes aged 14 to 25 went through the testing as part of a process that could lead to being identified by a national sport organization and receiving Future Olympian funding from Royal Bank.
Kendra Jones-Munk, 15, spoke to The Okanagan Weekend when she was still a little out of breath from the 12-minute endurance run.
It’s called the beep test because participants have to run the 20-metre, back-and-forth course repeatedly in increasingly quick times indicated by a beep alarm.
“I’m a golfer, so I usually don’t do this kind of training,” said Jones-Munk.
“But I wanted to experience it, see how I’d do and show off my skills.”
The Vernon high school student would love to compete in golf at the Olympics, but is open to the possibility of other sports based on her strengths in the testing.
After being absent from the Summer Games since 1904, golf returned to the Olympics in Rio in 2016.
Most of the athletes at the Kelowna stop of Royal Bank Training Ground are already playing their chosen sport at a fairly high level.
However, the testing can also determine whether athletes also have the potential to excel in a different sport.
For instance, a young woman playing soccer with the University of Lethbridge came to one of the Olympic audition events in Alberta and was told she may also be a candidate for highlevel track and field, cycling and/or bobsled.
The Canadian Olympic Committee teamed up with Royal Bank for Training Ground events in 30 cities across the country.
Top performers in Kelowna will be invited to the B.C. finals in Richmond on April 7 for further sport-specific testing.
Top prospects provincially win training support from a national sport organization and receive Future Olympian financial support from Royal Bank, including money for travel, coaching and nutrition.
Last year, of the 2,100 athletes who auditioned across the country, 300 were invited to additional testing and 30 made the final cut to receive training support from a national sport organization and Future Olympian funding.
The top five athletes from last year’s Training Ground sessions also won trips to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, to witness the athletes up close.
The Games being on right now also gave the Kelowna auditions an extra buzz.
During breaks, athletes and officials were gushing about Canada’s wins yesterday in Pyeong Chang — Kelowna’s Kelsey Serwa capturing gold in ski cross and Newfoundland figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond earning bronze.
Olympic bronze medalist cyclist Laura Brown and Olympic cyclist hopeful Megan Grant were at the Kelowna event as mentors.
“When I started, there was no Royal Bank Training Ground auditions,” said Brown, who won her medal as part of the four-woman team pursuit cycling team at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
“I had no funding except for the bank of mom and dad.”
Now, Brown works in communications at the Royal Bank regional head office in downtown Vancouver.
Grant is a team pursuit hopeful for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
She’s also an emergency room doctor at Vancouver General Hospital.
“I discovered cycling at age 27 (she’s now 35) when I bought a bike to get to and from work,” she said.
“I sucked at gym in school. So, I’m here to tell you to use today as an opportunity to discover your sport and ability and maybe get national sport support and financial help too.”