An athlete performing a strength test at the RBC Training Grounds national final.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/RBC

Young athletes will have an opportunity to show off their skills in front of scouts in Kelowna and might find out they have a knack for a sport they’ve never even tried.

RBC Training Ground is a free event for athletes aged 14 to 25 to test their power, speed, endurance, and strength in front of national sport organizations at 10:30 a.m. at the University of British Columbia Okanagan’s gym on Feb. 16.

Sam Effah is a former Olympic 100 metre sprinter who won two Canadian championships and is now a brand manager for RBC. He said he would have benefitted from an opportunity to showcase his skills when he was up-and-coming.

“Maybe I would have been discovered quicker. Maybe I would have been doing a sport that I didn't even know I was good at and excelled in it,” Effah told iNFOnews.ca.

Vernon local and Olympic skier Elena Gaskell is going to be at UBCO for the event to cheer on and support the athletes. 

Athletes have the chance to get some financial support to pursue their sport and an opportunity to get in touch with representatives from 15 different sport organizations from rugby, to canoeing, luge, and more.

“You come out, you don't have to actually have any experience, but you just go and have fun. If you get selected or identified in a sport, then great. But I think the key thing is you really don't know what sport that you could potentially be picked up in,” Effah said.

Effah said there were 21 athletes in the Paris Olympics who had gone through the program including gold medal cyclist Kelsey Mitchell.

“She came in as a varsity soccer player. Her name's Kelsey Mitchell. She came out... and she was identified as a track cyclist. She'd never even jumped on a bike in 2017. So, four years later, not only did she break the world record, but she got Olympic gold,” he said.

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There are four tests at the event where athletes can show off their speed, strength, power and endurance.

The speed test is a sprint, the power test is a vertical jump, the strength test is an isometric mid-thigh pull and the endurance test is wind sprinting, similar to the beep test that some folks hated in gym class.

“It's just like a one-stop shop to see if you have Olympic potential with a ton of national sport organizations just watching to see if you got what it takes,” Effah said.

Up to 35 athletes get $7,500 a year for two years, as well as support through mentorships and access to top coaches. First athletes need to go through a qualifier event like the one in Kelowna, and then they move ahead to the national event where they might get selected to receive the funding. There are more than 20 qualifying events across the country and those who get selected will be contacted directly to come out to the national final. 

There's also has a separate Athlete Accelerator program where athletes facing financial barriers can get $2,500 to help them pursue athletics.

For British Columbians who can’t make it to Kelowna there are events in Vancouver on March 9, and Victoria on March 29. There is also an option for athletes to set up a camera at home and submit recordings of the speed, endurance, strength, and power tests to qualify for the national final.

“You can do it virtually, but you get the experience when you're in person meeting some of these athletes that you can kind of look up to,” he said. “We have the program every year. So, the biggest thing is that this is not a one and done sort of opportunity... You can come back the next year and see if you have what it takes. We've seen athletes actually do that. They didn't make it the first year, and then the next year they came back stronger and faster, and they ended up getting selected.”

There is also a new women-only hour that participants can select when they sign up.

“We want people to feel comfortable, females to feel comfortable coming to the event. And if you want to just compete with other females, that's perfect, because we know that's definitely something that has been wanted, and we want to be as inclusive and supportive as possible,” Effah said.

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