Avalon Wasteneys who gained Gold on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Rowing, was found at an RBC Coaching Floor occasion in 2017. Photograph credit score: Rowing Canada.
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For Canada’s nationwide sport organizations (NSOs) like Rowing Canada and Rugby Canada, discovering up-and-coming Olympians has been made simpler due to RBC Coaching Floor’s expertise identification and athlete funding program.
Launched in 2016, RBC Coaching Floor holds free qualifying occasions throughout the nation the place athletes aged 14 to 25 can showcase their athletic talents in entrance of Canada’s high-performance sport representatives.
Kristy Martin Hale, co-ordinator of Ladies’s Excessive Efficiency for Rugby Canada, says the group is at all times succession planning, particularly after an Olympic Video games when athletes naturally retire or transfer on from the game. “RBC Coaching Floor has been an important avenue for us to seek out crossover athletes, which is a key space we’ve leveraged, in addition to figuring out athletes in additional distant areas of the nation,” Martin Hale mentioned.
She notes that Rugby Canada is particularly searching for athletes with velocity, energy and power, focusing totally on the velocity and leap stations at occasions, whereas additionally searching for an “X issue.” “The testing information is absolutely necessary for us, however we even have the chance to observe the athletes navigate that high-performance testing setting on the occasions, the place we are able to search for character and persona traits that may make them good for staff sports activities,” Martin Hale defined.
Athletes that exude confidence, acknowledge alternatives to interact with teaching employees, and are eager to ask questions, typically catch the attention of Rugby Canada representatives. The group has found two promising new rugby gamers lately by RBC Coaching Floor occasions - Fancy Bermudez and Krissy Scurfield. Bermudez attended an RBC Coaching Floor occasion 5 years in the past and has been excelling in Rugby Canada’s program ever since. She is now part of the senior coaching staff and is aiming for a spot on Canada’s Olympic staff for the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games.
Scurfield was named an RBC ‘Future Olympian’ – the identify given to high athletes funded by this system – final yr and was chosen by Rugby Canada to attend its 2021-2022 Maple Leaf Academy, the group’s growth program. Martin Hale recalled, “[Scurfield’s] velocity and energy actually stood out on the RBC Coaching Floor occasions. This has actually fast-tracked her development. With the ability to practice 5 days per week alongside the Maple Leaf athletes and senior program athletes, she’s shifting faster into senior choice than would have been doable in any other case.”
Laurence Cote, NextGen athlete recruitment coordinator with Rowing Canada, says RBC Coaching Floor occasions permit NSOs to zero in shortly on potential athletes finest fitted to their specific sport. “We perceive that athletes who go to those occasions want to be an Olympian, they’re wanting to achieve success. We perceive that they’re searching for their finest potential sport – it could possibly be biking or rowing, it could possibly be rugby. We don’t need to pull them from a sport they’d be higher fitted to, so we actually have simple conversations with them,” mentioned Cote.
Rowing Canada particularly appears to be like at an athlete’s total health within the qualifying occasions, in addition to their peak. The place they’re situated geographically in relation to appropriate rowing golf equipment can also be an element. “Nice rowers are typically very tall with a protracted arm span. Rowing is a sport of levers, so to have an additional couple centimetres is useful,” Cote defined.
On the RBC Coaching Floor Nationwide Ultimate, there may be an arm/leg take a look at that Rowing Canada locations a substantial amount of significance on. The arm/leg take a look at progresses by ranges from simple to tough as RPMs are elevated. “It will definitely turns into very, very tough, so it assessments their cardio health and psychological power. You possibly can see how the athlete will cope with the ache, as a result of rowing may be very intense and with the ability to calm down into it is necessary,” mentioned Cote.
100 athletes shall be chosen from the qualifiers – both the in-person qualifying occasions or this system’s at-home testing program – to compete within the RBC Coaching Floor Nationwide Ultimate, which takes place within the fall. From this closing occasion, as much as 30 athletes shall be named RBC Future Olympians, receiving funding and help to pursue their Olympic desires. This system’s success was evident on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Beijing 2022 Olympics with seven RBC Coaching Floor alumni successful Olympic medals for Canada.
With the COVID-19 pandemic having negatively impacted coaching time and alternatives for athlete growth, NSOs are hungry to seek out up-and-coming athletes at this yr’s RBC Coaching Floor occasions. “We’ve had a large deficit in expertise ID due to program disruptions. Popping out of COVID and having a lack of expertise ID for the previous two years, RBC has some added weight and significance for us,” Martin Hale mentioned of the 2022 RBC Coaching Floor occasions.
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