How do you find an Olympian?

For Canada's national sport organizations like Rowing Canada and Rugby Canada, finding up-and-coming Olympians has been made easier thanks to RBC Training Ground's talent identification and athlete funding program.

For Canada’s national sport organizations (NSOs) like Rowing Canada and Rugby Canada, finding up-and-coming Olympians has been made easier thanks to RBC Training Ground’s talent identification and athlete funding program.

Launched in 2016, RBC Training Ground holds free qualifying events across the country where athletes aged 14 to 25 can showcase their athletic abilities in front of Canada’s high-performance sport representatives.

Kristy Martin Hale, co-ordinator of Women’s High Performance for Rugby Canada, says the organization is always succession planning, especially after an Olympic Games when athletes naturally retire or move on from the sport. “RBC Training Ground has been a great avenue for us to find crossover athletes, which is a key area we’ve leveraged, as well as identifying athletes in more remote regions of the country,” Martin Hale said.