All routes from the Hartland and Bear Mountain trails, and from the roads of the Saanich Peninsula, converge Saturday morning in Rio de Janeiro for two extraordinary Island sporting products. But it has been a circuitous route, physically and emotionally, to get there for Catharine Pendrel and Kirsten Sweetland.
Pendrel will contest the Olympic women鈥檚 mountain-bike race at 8:30 a.m. (CBC) and Stelly鈥檚 Secondary-graduate Sweetland the Olympic triathlon at 7 a.m. (TSN) and each will do so with something to prove. Pendrel is a two-time world champion but the Olympics have proven a podium too far up to now with fourth place at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games and a deeply disappointing ninth at London in 2012.
There will be a viewing party to watch Saturday鈥檚 race at the Westin Bear Mountain, where the Canadian national mountain-biking team is based. The 5.5-kilometre Bear Mountain circuit was built to replicate the Rio Olympic course to help Pendrel prepare.
鈥淐atharine is amazing. She is still at heart the same person who came out for those early rides at Hartland [when she was a little known member of the University of Victoria triathlon team],鈥� said Canadian Olympic team mountain-bike head coach Dan Proulx of Victoria, speaking from Rio.
鈥淪he is such a consistent performer.鈥�
And a persistent one.
鈥淎t first she said: 鈥楲et鈥檚 try to win Island Cups,鈥� 鈥� recalled Proulx, who has mentored Pendrel from the tentative beginnings of her mountain-biking career.
鈥淭hen it was: 鈥楧o you think we can go after sa国际传媒 Cups?鈥欌��
Pretty soon, the goals became national, then international.
鈥淐atharine is a really driven person with a tremendous work ethic,鈥� said Proulx.
But at age 35, the sand is running down on her aspirations of capping her career on the Olympic podium.
sa国际传媒 has two world top-10 ranked riders, Pendrel and Emily Batty of Toronto, which Proulx said gives sa国际传媒: 鈥淎 1-2 punch with both having medal opportunities . . . I look at them as a unit . . . a part of that unit could make the podium.鈥�
Both their strategies complement each other, said Proulx: 鈥淐atharine is a front-runner who likes to go out strong from the start while Emily likes to come from behind.鈥�
Here鈥檚 a harbinger: The last time Pendrel raced at a Games in Rio, she won gold in the 2007 Pan Am Games. But after Pendrel won gold at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Batty won gold and Pendrel silver at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto. In March, Pendrel returned the favour by taking gold despite a broken thumb and relegating Batty to silver at the sa国际传媒 Cup on Bear Mountain.
Batty broke her collarbone in a training crash just four days before the 2012 London Olympics. She somehow gutted out a top-25 finish at London
鈥淲e [Pendrel and Batty] are propelling each other to be better and stronger,鈥� said Pendrel.
Meanwhile, the world seemed at Sweetland鈥檚 feet when the Islander won the 2006 world junior women鈥檚 triathlon championship. But then came a stunning array of injuries and afflictions that kept her out of the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, although she did manage to nick a silver medal at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Finally comes her chance Saturday on the biggest stage.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so much sweeter after the struggles I have had over the last 10 years to get here,鈥� said Sweetland.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a word for it. To say it has been tough would be an understatement. After facing an unimaginable amount of health issues, I never lost sight of my dream. I鈥檓 excited to be in the action.鈥�
Those past battles will hold Sweetland in good stead Saturday, said Canadian Olympic team triathlon head coach Jonathan Hall of Victoria.
鈥淜irsten鈥檚 is a story of resilience. She has had a very rough time and overcome a lot. She is a racer. She has finally come to a destination [Olympics] where she should have arrived a long time ago.鈥�
Both Sweetland and Pendrel are products of what came before them on the Island. Sweetland was influenced to try the sport by the outsized success of Victoria鈥檚 Simon Whitfield, the men鈥檚 triathlon gold medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and silver medallist at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
Pendrel came up in the sport rolling through the tire tracks rutted by the likes of Island mountain bikers ahead of her such as 1996 Atlanta Olympic silver-medallist Alison Sydor, world-champion Roland Green, world silver-medallist Ryder Hesjedal and Olympians Geoff Kabush and Max Plaxton.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about bringing along the next ones,鈥� said Proulx.
鈥淸Pendrel] saw what Alison Sydor did, and said 鈥業 can do that, too.鈥� 鈥�
But the coach didn鈥檛 see potential in Pendrel during those early days on Hartland. He thought there鈥檚 a reason why she is just a casual UVic triathlete.
鈥淐atharine said she had to talk me into taking her on as an athlete. I don鈥檛 remember that exactly . . . but I honestly didn鈥檛 see it at first in her, just the same,鈥� admitted Proulx.
鈥淏ut she kept at it and persisted.鈥�
Now, younger riders have been inspired by Pendrel鈥檚 success.
So, who can take credit for Pendrel? Her rural hometown of Harvey Station, New Brunswick, where she grew up on a horse farm? Victoria, where she was forged as an athlete, and where she met her husband Keith Wilson when they were the first to arrive for a UVic triathlon club practice only to find love bloom? Or Kamloops, to where she moved after Wilson took a teaching job there? Pendrel said she readily, happily and proudly answers to all three as 鈥渉ome.鈥�
As with mountain biking, triathlon is a big sport on the Island.
鈥淰ictoria is the hotbed. It is the place to be because the athletes are supported so well,鈥� said national team triathlon coach Hall.
So much so that the city could lay claim to a possible triathlon medal won for Australia Saturday in Rio. Hall is based at the Triathlon sa国际传媒 offices at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria. His wife is the Aussie triathlete, Erin Densham, who won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, and has become a fixture swimming at Saanich Commonwealth Place, running the Elk/Beaver and Thetis lake trails and cycling the roads of Greater Victoria. Even though Densham will be wearing a gold and green Aussie racing singlet this morning in Rio, not red and white, the Oak Bay Bunch cycling group that rides every Saturday with her to Land鈥檚 End and back, will be rooting for Densham.
鈥淓rin has been a good role model for the young racers on the Island and almost acts as a coach for them. She is savvy and has intuition on race day. She鈥檚 a racer.鈥�
Hall鈥檚 mind will be on sa国际传媒 Saturday but his heart partly with the Australian team. He can certainly be allowed that discretion.
