ST. JOHN’S, NL – Seventy-three Newfoundland athletes participated in the Canadian Olympic Committee, RBC Training Ground event in St John’s last week. Newfoundland Olympic curler Mark Nichols was on hand to cheer the athletes on as they competed in specific tests for speed, strength and endurance in a nation wide competition.
RBC Training Ground is a talent identification and athlete funding program designed to find young athletes with Olympic potential, and provide them with the resources they need to achieve their podium dreams.
With the belief that high performance sports should be accessible to all athletes that are talented, qualified and have the will to compete, this program travels the country searching for athletes between the ages of 14 and 25 that will fuel the Canadian Olympic pipeline.
Athletes are assessed using basic tests that indicate speed, strength, power and endurance capabilities.
National Sport Organizations (NSO’s) use combinations of these test results to identify skills that may translate to strong potential in their respective sport. Each sport requires different physical abilities and skills, and therefore performance benchmarks vary by NSO. Field based assessment results must be viewed within the context of the requirements of the sport, the characteristics of the athlete, and the stage of their development.
