Lethbridge athletes hope to be discovered as next Olympian at RBC Training Ground

RBC Training Ground hit the road again this year in the hopes of finding future Canadian Olympians in Lethbridge this weekend.

It’s the second year of the event but it’s the first time it has taken place in Lethbridge as one of four stops across the province.

Several athletes showed up on Saturday, including University of Lethbridge sprinter Doyin Adepoju.

“As a long-term goal and in the future. hopefully I’ll be competing for Canada in the Olympics and that’s where I see myself,” Adepoju said.

The event tested athletes between the ages of 14 and 25 against benchmarks set by national sport organizations (NSO), scouting for young talent with Olympic potential.

Each athlete was tested in four different categories: power, strength, speed and endurance.

In total, 11 NSO’s participated including Water Polo Canada, Rugby Canada and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton.

“A lot of these athletes do have sport backgrounds in something else…maybe they’re super good in strength and didn’t know that yet and suddenly you have a coach looking at them and saying ‘hey maybe come talk to us’,” RBC Olympian Cassie Hawrysh said.

Several other athletes showed up to compete, including some from the Alberta Sport Development Centre Southwest in Lethbridge.

“We had a bunch of our athletes who are part of the athlete enhancement program and we had a few of our athletes from our rugby prep program come out as well,” centre coordinator Joshua Hoetmer said. “At the end of the day two, the fastest three females were from our athlete enhancement program.”

Retired Olympian Joshua Riker-Fox said this opportunity didn’t exist when he began competing in the modern pentathlon.

“Looking at athletes, they don’t even realize the skills or the potential that they have and now they have an opportunity to recognize where they could go,” Riker-Fox said.

The top athletes from local qualifiers will be invited to one of five regional finals, including one in Calgary on May 6.

From there, a small group of athletes will be selected to attend the 2018 Olympics for the experience and up to 50 additional athletes will receive funding towards their future.

“If you look in Canada, we’ve never had a structure like this for talent identification that a lot of other countries have,” Riker-Fox said. “RBC has stepped up and created this through training ground.”

For Adepoju, he hopes the event gives him the launch he needs to compete in the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo.