‘Untapped potential’: Meet young, Hamilton-area athletes chasing the Olympic dream

In 2019, Ryan Macdonald walked into the McMaster University gym a football player and left a cyclist. A few years later, he's riding in a velodrome at 70 kilometres an hour, training hard to make the national team.

I'm still trying to hit the time standard for Team Canada," he said. But it's going to happen this year."

The 24-year-old is one of hundreds of young athletes identified as having Olympic potential through a national program called RBC Training Ground which launched its 2023 season Saturday at McMaster's athletic centre. Seventy-two young athletes gathered in the university gym, rotating through exercises to test their power, speed, strength and endurance in the first of six Training Ground events in the province.

The desire is potentially finding kids that have untapped potential," said Sheldon Persad of the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario.

Since its launch in 2016, the program has tested 12,000 athletes across the country, with more than 1,600 put into the Olympic talent pipeline," reads a release. Seven won medals at the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 games.

There really isn't a program like this anywhere else in the world," he said.

On Saturday, groups of athletes aged 14 to 25 were evaluated on their performance in high jump for power, sprints for running speed, isometric midthigh pull for strength and beep test for endurance as local Olympians Sarah Nurse, Renata Fast and Madeleine Kelly cheered them on.

Persad said many young athletes are hidden gems" who haven't yet been discovered. The program also helps skilled athletes discover sports they may not have had exposure to in high school.

Several coaches, including those from boxing, speed skating and volleyball teams, watched from the sidelines, hoping to identify future team members. Macdonald, who was there with Cycling Canada, said metrics - how fast an athlete runs and how high they jump - are just one aspect.

There's so much more to the athlete than just numbers," said Macdonald, watching runners increase their pace with each lap of the beep test. A tough spirit goes a long way."

Macdonald said the program changed the trajectory of his life.

I'm so happy for this opportunity," he said. I never even knew track cycling existed until I actually did RBC Training Ground."

Meet some of the local students with Olympic dreams:

Kendry Georges, 17, Hamilton

By the time Kendry Georges was 11, he had already won a few track-and-field medals.

After moving to Hamilton from Haiti in 2017, Kendry joined the Hamilton Olympic Club, where he began competing in various track events. The Grade 12 Bishop Ryan Catholic Secondary School student won the senior boys' 400-metre hurdles at last year's Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference, and won first place in the city finals.

Hopefully, I will go in higher groups ... and get to go to the Olympics," the 17-year-old said.

Liam Harrison, 20, Hamilton

Hamilton Hurricanes defensive lineman Liam Harrison's goal is to play in the CFL.

Plan B is to train for strongman, but he's also interested in martial arts and boxing.

This could be my ticket ... it could be another door opening," he said of the Training Ground program.

Tayler Scott, 15, Burlington

In Grade 9, she was the fastest 100-metre female sprinter in Halton. She was also her school's female athlete of the year.

Now in Grade 10, Tayler Scott runs track, and plays basketball and volleyball at M.M. Robinson High School in Burlington. Last year, she placed third in Ontario for long jump with a jump of over five metres.

I do want to go to the Olympics," the 15-year-old said

The young athlete is currently at the top of the Training Ground leaderboard for sprint and vertical jump, an ability a volleyball coach noticed right away," Persad said.

Zoe Thorsen-Cavers, 16, Hamilton

The list of sports Hamilton's Zoe Thorsen-Cavers doesn't play is short.

The Grade 11 student plays on Sherwood Secondary School's soccer, field hockey, volleyball, track and field and badminton teams.

My dreams are to be a professional soccer athlete," the 16-year-old said. Her backup plan is to be a gym teacher, a more realistic" goal, she said.

I did better in the run than I expected, because the lady over there said I was pretty fast," she said after finishing several sprints on Saturday. I'm not really a sprinter."

Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com