1 week Ago By Gare Joyce
Ali ten Hove lived the dream of young athletes when she made it to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as a member of the Canadian sailing team, representing the nation in the 49er FX class. After speaking to 160 young athletes gathered at an RBC Training Ground event at St Lawrence College, ten Hove, a product of the Kingston Yacht Club, wondered out loud about her own athletic potential and performance. “I’m curious,” the Queen’s MBA candidate said.
“I’d like to see how I’d have done, how my athletic ability would have transferred into other sports. I’m short so I don’t know how that would have translated into the power sports.” A member of RBC’s Olympian program for the last five years, ten Hove delivered a message intended to inspire those who signed up for Kingston’s Training Ground session.
Among the success stories, ten Hove cited Kelsey Mitchell, who had tried a variety of sports and focused on soccer before her Training Ground results suggested that she was suited best for cycling. “Within two years she was an Olympian and a gold medalist in Tokyo,” ten Hove said. “What I see in the athletes here is what I look for in the athletes I coach — a willingness to push to the limit and beyond and daring to dream.
” While Mitchell’s story is one of those that have raised the profile of the RBC program, dozens of other athletes could tell their own stories to those Kingston-area young men and women who came out on Saturday. Among the stories that would be most accessible is that of one of the staffers working the sprint station. ShonDreia Smardon, 17, didn’t know what to expect when she went to the Training Ground event in Ottawa a year ago.
Smardon had played high-school rugby and flag football at her Ottawa high school. “I looked around and didn’t expect to get noticed,” Smardon said. “There was just so much great athleticism and ability with so many who came out.
” Her performances surprised her. “I got some great numbers in the Iso-pull (the strength test) and the sprint,” she said. “I wound up getting picked up by Rugby Canada at the qualifier.
In the testing I was within the numbers that they were projecting for (candidates). Now, a year later, I’ve been long-listed for the Pan-Am Games.” Smardon said she hopes to focus on Rugby 7s, the high-tempo version of the game that’s been featured at the past three Olympic Games with both men’s and women’s fields.
A spot on an Olympic team would be her long-run goal, what Smardon dares to dream, but that and the Pan Am Games in the interim and build-up will require the stars lining up. Even if that doesn’t come together, Smardon is already seeing immediate returns in the meantime. “The important thing that came out my Training Ground experience is meeting the national team coach and talking with the people in the program,” Smardon said.
“I’m learning what I have to do to become an international athlete. I don’t think I’d have ever been spotted if I hadn’t come out and performed.” Also coming out of her Training Ground performances were conversations that Smardon has had with the athletic department at Victoria University.
“I’m looking at sports science as the area that I want to get into, maybe kinesiology,” she said. At that point she surveyed the athletes doing the vertical jump testing in the St Lawrence College gymnasium and smiled when asked if Training Ground had any impact on her area of interest. “Not a coincidence,” she said.
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