(Photo Credit: Larry Wong)

By rdnewsNOW staff

Sadie Fosty/Drew West

Two Red Deer athletes make Olympic talent search national final

Oct 17, 2023 | 2:09 PM

A pair of multi-sport athletes from Red Deer are in the running to join Team Canada, in sports they’d never considered.

Sadie Fosty, a 15-year-old at Koinonia Christian School and Drew West, a 16-year-old at St. Joseph, have been named finalists in RBC Training Ground.

RBC Training Ground is the Canadian Olympic Committee’s official cross-country talent search, designed to identify and fund future Olympians.

Fosty, who competes in volleyball and track, attended an RBC Training Ground event in Calgary and caught the eye of scouts from Luge Canada, who invited her to try the sport and see if their hunch was right.

“Sadie had very good physical testing scores, and then demonstrated an ability to pick up luge specific skills very quickly,” said Mike Lane, Junior National Head Coach with Luge Canada. “She won a head-to-head paddling challenge, and looked like a three-year veteran of the Junior National Team doing it.”

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West was identified at a custom testing event set up specifically for 2023 Team Alberta North American Indigenous Games athletes. His vertical jump score (measuring power) was among the best recorded nationally.

“I’m really looking forward to competing against the best athletes in the country, see how I compare, and see where it might lead,” said West. “Competing in basketball at the NAIG Games this summer was probably the greatest moment I’ve had as an athlete so far, but I’m open to possibilities for sure.”

This year 2,200 athletes (aged 14-25) from a wide range of sports participated in free local qualifier events across the country, performing core speed, strength, power and endurance tests in front of Olympic talent scouts to find the sport for which they are most suited, or earn a funding boost in their existing sport based on their raw physical abilities.

The top 100 deemed to have great Olympic potential will now compete in the RBC Training Ground national final on December 2 in Toronto. Thirty athletes from the final will earn funding, a spot on Team Canada with one of twelve partner National Sport Organizations, and an accelerated path to the Olympics.

During RBC Training Ground National Final testing, athletes’ speed, power, strength, and endurance will again be tested against sport-specific, high-performance benchmarks under supervision of program sport partners. Officials say an athlete’s anthropomorphic measurements (height, wingspan, etc), sport-specific testing (conducted following the qualifier stage) and competitive sport history also play a role in who is selected for funding.

“RBC Training Ground is designed to help fill and fund Canada’s Olympic sport talent pipeline, said Evan MacInnis, Technical Director, RBC Training Ground. “Some of the athletes who participate in RBC Training Ground are looking to reenergize or boost an Olympic dream in a sport they are already participating in. Others participate with the hope of being discovered and directed toward an Olympic sport they may have never considered. But they all rely on raw athleticism to impress our sport partners and compete for funding.”

The finalists, who will have transportation, hotel, and food covered by RBC, will be joined at the Final by RBC Training Ground alumni and Olympic medalists.

The 30 athletes selected for funding will be announced early in 2024. The funding is administered by the participating National Sport Organization bringing the athlete into its system, and is used for things like coaching, transportation, travel, equipment, and nutrition. NSO partners include Boxing Canada; Canoe Kayak Canada; Climbing Escalade Canada; Cycling Canada Cyclisme; Freestyle Canada, Luge Canada; Rowing Canada Aviron, Rugby Canada; Speed Skating Canada; Triathlon Canada; Volleyball Canada, Boxing Canada; Climbing Canada; Triathlon Canada; and Wrestling Canada.

The complete list of 100 finalists is available at RBCTrainingground.ca in the community / news section.

Now in its 8^th year, RBC Training Ground is a nation-wide talent identification and athlete-funding program dedicated to finding and supporting the next generation of Canadian Olympians. Since its inception in 2016, the program has tested 13,000 athletes at free local events across Canada, with close to 2,000 being identified by NSO partners as having Olympic potential.

Officials say 13 RBC Training Ground athletes have competed at two Olympic Games, and together they’ve brought home a collective seven medals. Program alumni Kelsey Mitchell and Marion Thénault are among the medal winners, both of whom had never tried their Olympic sport before showing up at an RBC Training Ground event.

A new season of RBC Training Ground will be launching in early 2024.

Visit RBCTrainingGround.ca for details.