Entering its fourth year, the RBC Training Ground program is a nation-wide talent identification and athlete-funding program dedicated to finding and supporting the next generation of Canadian Olympians.
RBC Training Ground: A major boost to Canada’s Olympic talent pipeline.
Team Canada Names 4 RBC Future Olympians to the Youth Olympic Games
On Tuesday, The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) has announced the team of 71 athletes and 28 coaches that will represent Canada at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from October 6 to 18. Among those selected are current RBC Future Olympians Grace Vandenbroek (rowing), Carmen Izyk (rugby), Aliesha Lewis (rugby) and Alex Throndson (Athletics). Carmen, Aliesha and Alex all participated in RBC Training Ground in 2017 with Grace participating in our inaugural year in 2016. These are just some of the athletes that have been selected to receiving funding and support from RBC as they pursue their Olympic dreams.
Ringette’s Rogiani looks to switch skates
Jessica Rogiani knew she was spinning in circles when it came to ringette. So she decided to bank on RBC.
MacAulay wins both her races at Red Island Regatta
BRUDENELL, P.E.I. – The Red Island Regatta made a triumphant return to the Brudenell River on Saturday and rowers from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia say they can’t wait to come back in 2019.
How RBC Training Ground Impacted My Sport Career
By Marion Thénault
Sport has always been part of my life. My parents put me into gymnastics when I was 3 and I just never stopped. As I grew in the sport, I was developing my passion for flipping while learning what it takes to be an athlete: determination, discipline, perseverance, etc. When I was 13, I started trampoline alongside my gymnastics career because my strength has always been my aerial sense and my power, and I just loved going higher and flipping more.
When I finished high school, I knew my gymnastics career was coming to an end. I was now 5’9, which is very tall for a gymnast, and I knew I had almost reached my maximum potential in this sport. The thing is that I didn’t want to quit gymnastics if I wasn’t going to do anything else to replace it, but I didn’t know in which sport I could reinvest all the work I had put in in gymnastics. That’s when I heard of the RBC Training Ground. I went to my regional final not really knowing what to expect but having nothing to lose. There, I met an aerial skiing coach who invited me to come to an assessment camp on water ramps. I had never really heard of that sport and had only skied a couple times in my life, but I decided to go and try.
It is at that first aerial camp that things really changed. I fell in love with the sport and knew from that moment that I had found my new passion, the new sport in which I had a lot of potential, where I could give my all and continue flipping. In the few weeks following that summer, I decided I was going to move from home and put my aerials career as my top priority. I entered in the RBC Future Olympian Program and I started to train on snow, on trampoline and in conditioning with the Laurentian Team.
By the end of the winter, I had learned so many things about freestyle skiing and was now part of this big family. I now have the opportunity to train full-time with the national development team and I can set big goals for my career. So many things have changed this past year and I am so grateful to RBC to have given me the opportunity to live my dream in aerial skiing, a sport that I never would have thought could be mine.
Former Hay River hockey player laces up skates for new Olympic sport
Hay River’s Gavin Broadhead won the regional RBC Training Ground program final in Alberta.
From hockey player to sprinter, now Gavin Broadhead will be hitting the ice for a whole new sport at the Olympic level.
Speed Skating Canada recently showed interest in the 23-year-old from Hay River, N.W.T., after he placed first at the regional RBC Training Ground final in Alberta. In July he will be headed to a four-day training camp at the Olympic Oval in Calgary.
“I’m pretty excited about the opportunity,” Broadhead said.
The program, co-sponsored by the CBC, RBC and the Canadian Olympic Committee, aims to find athletes with Olympic potential…