Cross-country, year-long search for new
Olympic talent culminates with 100 prospects gathering in
Calgary to compete for funding and
the chance to chase Olympic dream
TORONTO, Aug. 26, 2019 /CNW/ - RBC Training Ground, a
program dedicated to identifying and supporting Canada's future Olympians, announced on Monday
the names of 100 young athletes invited to its first-ever National
Final to be held in Calgary.
Earlier this year nearly 2,000 athletes from across the country
participated in one of 30 RBC Training Ground qualifying events.
The athletes, with a wide range of sporting backgrounds, tested
their speed, power, strength and endurance to see if they might be
suited for an Olympic sport.
The 100 athletes named will now compete for funding and a spot
on one of eight partner National Sport Organization (NSO) teams at
the RBC Training Ground National Final on September 14 in Calgary. Based on their results, up to 30
top-performing athletes will officially be selected as RBC 'Future
Olympians' – receiving funding and resources to pursue their
Olympic dreams.
The complete list of athletes invited to the 2019 RBC Training
Ground National Final as well as the list of 2019 NSO partners are
available at RBCTrainingGround.ca.
"The RBC Training Ground National final is a unique opportunity
for young, high-potential athletes discovered at this year's local
events to earn support and start their Olympic journey," said
Matt McGlynn, Vice-President, Brand
Marketing, RBC. "At RBC we are very proud to support our Canadian
Olympic athletes at every stage of their careers."
Olympic champions Justin Kripps
(bobsleigh), Patrick Chan (figure
skating) and Penny Oleksiak
(swimming) will be on site in Calgary to encourage the participants. They
will be joined by Tokyo 2020 bound
athletes Melissa Humana-Paredes
(beach volleyball) and Jennifer Abel
(diving).
Kelsey Mitchell (track cycling),
a Tokyo 2020 hopeful, got her
start in cycling after attending a local Edmonton RBC Training
Ground event in 2018. A former varsity soccer player at the
University of Alberta, Mitchell was
recently crowned Pan American champion at Lima 2019 as the cycling rookie won gold in
women's sprint and set a Pan American Games record along the way.
She also raced to silver in the women's team sprint, narrowly
missing gold.
"If it wasn't for RBC Training Ground, I would have never tried
track cycling," said Mitchell. "This program introduced me to an
entirely new sport and it has completely changed my life. I went
from working full-time for Stathcona County in Alberta, to training full-time with the
national team at Cycling Canada and travelling around the world.
Recently, I competed at the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru, where I walked away with a gold
and silver medal. None of this would have happened without RBC
Training Ground."
Dedicated to finding and supporting the next generation of
Canadian Olympians, RBC Training Ground has tested more than 7,000
athletes at 98 free local events in 35 different Canadian
communities. Since 2016, RBC has provided $1.3 million in support to 87 different athletes
identified through RBC Training Ground. RBC Training Ground events
are free, and open to any athlete between the ages of 14 and
25.
"It's quite impressive to see how much the Training Ground
program has grown over a short period of time," said David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic
Committee. "Every year the program seems to identify
high-performance athletes that are capable of representing
Canada at the highest level. Just
last month at Lima 2019, we saw
Kelsey Mitchell, who discovered
track cycling through Training Ground, win two medals. Today we can
call her a Pan American champion and record holder. RBC's
commitment and innovative approach to identifying talent is a
shining example of how the private sector positively impacts our
sport system – and the athletes now see that. The fact that
high-profile athletes want to attend and support the first-ever
Training Ground Final is a true testament to the legitimacy of the
program as a pipeline for Canada's
future Olympians."
Founded in 2016, RBC Training Ground was developed in
partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Olympic
Foundation, CBC Sports, and the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic
Sport Institute Network.
"The RBC Training Ground National Final is the exciting
culmination of the year-long search for Canada's future Olympians," said Chris Wilson, Executive Director, Sports and
Olympics, CBC. "CBC Sports is delighted to help introduce Canadians
to some of the country's future athletic stars, as well as
reacquaint them with Olympic champions, through broadcast and
online coverage of this anticipated event."
Detailed explanations of the testing process, athlete progress
reports and registration/event information for all local RBC
Training Ground events is available at RBCTrainingGround.ca.
SOURCE RBC