SPORTS
From Issue #16
Dreams of Gold
Canadian Olympians Get Ready For The Big Show
By James Chung
Blink once. Now again. That could be
the difference between winning a gold
medal and going home empty-handed at
the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
It’s also why an elite athlete’s training
regime can border on obsessive.
Every four years, the world gathers at
the Olympics to witness incredible
achievements of athleticism. But often,
we overlook the fact that these athletes
use every single day between the
Olympics to prepare. For some, like
Canada’s Perdita Felicien, four years of
intense training go towards a race that
lasts less than 13 seconds, where
differences get measured by hundredths
of a second.
When Perdita won gold in the 100m
hurdles at the 2003 World Track & Field
Championships she set a new Canadian
and personal record time of 12.53
seconds. Despite her podium finish
Perdita knew there was still much
training ahead as she was only 0.22
seconds better than fourth place.
“It was definitely the perfect race
for today,” she said, “but I know there is
so much more I need to improve on.”
While at Pine Ridge High School in
Pickering, Ontario, Perdita worried about
losing, so-much-so that she wouldn’t
even try out for the team—until two
friends changed her life. “I didn’t start
until I was in the 11th grade in high
school. I actually started really late,”
she says. “I remember one day two of
my friends who wanted me on their relay
team dragged me to the gym and I was
fighting them, I was like, ‘No, no, I’m not
going out for the team, I don’t want to
get beat,’ so for two years I wasn’t on
the track team. And then in the 11th
grade, I was a little more mature and
I thought, let me see what I can do.”
What she could do amazed people.
It earned her a scholarship to the
University of Illinois. Now at 23 years
old, Perdita is one of the best hurdlers in
the world with no signs of slowing down.
However, she has not lost sight of her
education and has developed a schedule
which includes school. “I’m still a
student,” she says. “My typical day is
going to class, then going to practice,
then doing some homework, and doing
everything for the next day, you know,
getting up for class and going to track.”
She has earned academic honours.
Marion Jones, the fastest woman on
earth and arguably the best female
athlete in the world, says her goals were
clear right from the start. “Without a
doubt I knew when I was six years old
that I was going to be the fastest
woman in the world. I wrote it on the
chalkboard when I was nine that I was
going to be an Olympic champion,”
she says. It’s hard to imagine anyone
who stands on a podium got there
without first believing they could.
Canadian Simon Whitfield, from
Kingston, Ontario, and gold medalist in
the triathlon at the Sydney Olympics in
2000, says, “As a young athlete I had a
tremendous internal belief. My goal was
to be one of the best in the world at
something. When I aspired to be a
triathlete I had this real belief that I
could do this.”
Becoming the best in the world is also
about sacrifice and determination. Brent
Hayden, 20, from Mission, BC, is the
Canadian record-holder for the 100m
freestyle swim, and like all other elite
athletes, he has had to make adjustments
to his lifestyle to pursue his dreams.
Since high school, Hayden has trained
six days a week 
for four to five hours
a day (as well as a 45-minute commute),
writing off any chance of a normal social
life. “I never went to any parties in high
school but now that I am out of high
school and I am doing this, I have gotten
to experience a lot of things my friends
will never get to experience,” he says.
“I get to travel all over the world, I have
seen so many different things and I get
to compete with some of the top
athletes in the world.
According to the best of the best,
the road from high-school athlete to
world competitor is obviously
paved with hard work, dedication,
self-belief and focus. “I’m not
going to the Olympics to
party every night,” Hayden
says. “I am there to
compete and to win.”
Olympic swimmer Brent Hayden with Lorraine from Faze
