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Want to be the next Jerry Brown, the former McMaster football player who won silver with the Elk Lake-based Canadian rowing eight at the 2012 London Summer Olympics? Or how about the next Gillian Carleton, the Victoria athlete whose career hit the wall in triathlon before she switched and won Olympic track cycling bronze at London 2012?

It鈥檚 not so much about finding that rare diamond in the rough as it is about directing that diamond into the right ring.

The fourth annual Podium Search athlete identification camp, to be held Sunday at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence on the Camosun Interurban campus, is searching for sa国际传媒鈥檚 next Olympians in unlikely places. The thing is, those places are likely already fields or rinks of play.

It isn鈥檛 so much about a Canadian Idol-type sports competition that organizers interested in, as it is about talent transfer.

鈥淎 lot of kids play soccer or hockey, where the competition is tough because of numbers,鈥� said Kurt Innes, director of talent development for Canadian Sport Institute-Victoria.

鈥淲hy not take your existing athletic skills, and great aerobic capacity, and try a non-traditional North American sport as a way to get to the Olympic or Paralympic podium? Pick up an oar or get on a bike. We are allowing young athletes to extend and express themselves and find other pathways to the Olympics,鈥� added Innes, who coached the Canadian cycling team at the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Summer Games.

Innes pointed to the likes of finds such as Caroline Crossley, an Oak Bay High School soccer star who has been carded by the Canadian sevens rugby team, after a previous Podium Search.

Podium Search athlete registration is free, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at PISE. It is open to all able-body athletes between 14 and 22 years of age. For those aiming for the Paralympics, the age group is 14 to 35.