Canadian Olympic champion cyclist Kelsey Mitchell ‘fired up’ for Commonwealth Games debut
Canadian Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell is hungry for extra.
The monitor bike owner from Sherwood Park, Alta., gained gold in her Olympic debut final summer time in Tokyo, and he or she makes her Commonwealth Video games debut on Friday whereas headlining an thrilling 18-member Canadian biking workforce poised for achievement in England.
For Mitchell, competing on the Commonwealth Video games is each a full circle second and one other milestone on her meteoric rise that started simply 4 years in the past.
Mitchell’s fast rise to the highest culminated in Olympic gold — one thing most athletes spend their total careers making an attempt to perform. Regardless of already attaining a lot so rapidly, she says her motivation is as sturdy as ever as she turns the web page to a brand new chapter in her profession.
“The starvation continues to be there. I wish to get higher each single day, and I now wish to keep on high,” Mitchell stated. “I’ve already been overwhelmed, so it is anybody’s recreation. Anybody is usually a champion and Olympic champion, however you have to hold going, you have to hold pushing. I do not plan to cease anytime quickly”
WATCH l Mitchell captures dash silver at UCI Monitor Nations Cup:
Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell from Sherwood Park, Alta. falls to world champion Emma Hinze of Germany within the ladies’s dash gold medal last on the Tissot UCI Monitor Nations Cup in Milton, Ont.
Mitchell is considered one of eight Olympian cyclists representing Canada in England. Whereas the Video games are being hosted in Birmingham, the monitor biking occasions are going down at Lee Valley VeloPark in London — a venue the place Mitchell gained silver final December on the last UCI Monitor Biking Champions League occasion of the season.
Whereas Mitchell stated her first Olympic expertise was memorable past phrases, the Commonwealth Video games provides a brand new aspect with it being her first time competing on an enormous worldwide stage in entrance of a full crowd
“I am excited to go and do a Video games with the total crowd, it has been some time. Tokyo was a tremendous expertise, however I believe having the stands packed will probably be one thing else. And I do know London has numerous biking followers, so I believe it’s going to be simply wonderful occasion throughout,” Mitchell stated.
New wave of expertise
Together with Mitchell’s rise, the biking workforce has seen numerous different main modifications because the 2018 Commonwealth Video games on the Gold Coast in Australia.
Lauriane Genest and Ariane Bonhomme are Canada’s solely returning monitor cyclists from the 2018 version, whereas fellow Olympians Michael Foley and Derek Gee are the one returning street cyclists.
“4 years in the past, on the Gold Coast Video games, Lauriane Genest was a shock newcomer who completed fourth within the dash match; Kelsey Mitchell wasn’t even a part of our workforce. Now they’re each Olympic medallists and riders to observe,” stated Biking Canada’s high-performance director Kris Westwood.
The biking occasions on the Commonwealth Video games start on the monitor in London, with 16 gold medals up for grabs throughout eight ladies’s occasions and eight males’s occasions.
Mitchell leads a robust Canadian dash workforce that features Genest, who captured keirin bronze in Tokyo, and thrilling newcomer Sarah Orban.
WATCH l Mitchell, Genest, Orban seize workforce dash bronze at UCI Monitor Nations Cup:
Canada’s Lauriane Genest, Kelsey Mitchell and Sarah Orban beat Nice Britain within the ladies’s workforce dash bronze medal race on the Tissot UCI Monitor Nations Cup in Milton, Ont.
Olympian Nick Wammes will probably be competing on the lads’s facet together with Tyler Rorke and Ryan Dodyk — all making their Commonwealth Video games debut.
Mitchell is happy about Canada’s new wave of monitor biking expertise, and he or she hopes the momentum being created can assist the game proceed to develop for years to come back.
“It’s extremely thrilling to see these younger guys come via and produce the depth and pleasure to be at their first video games and be representing Canada,” Mitchell stated. It is wonderful to see this sport carry on rising, and that is type of the aim out of all this.
Mitchell, Genest and Orban are competing within the dash, workforce dash, keirin and time trial occasions in London — placing Canada in a stable place to succeed in the rostrum.
Canadian elite ladies’s street champion Maggie Coles-Lyster is making her Commonwealth Video games debut whereas competing on each the monitor and street.
A two-time Pan Am Video games medallist, Coles-Lyster will lead the Canadian ladies within the monitor endurance occasions — the workforce pursuit, factors race, scratch race and particular person pursuit. She will probably be joined by Bonhomme, Ngaire Barraclough and Devaney Collier.
WATCH l Coles-Lyster wins scratch race in UCI Monitor Champions League:
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Coles-Lyster was the victor within the first-ever race of the UCI Monitor Champions League.
Foley and Gee will prepared the ground for Canada in males’s monitor endurance alongside newcomers Mathias Guillemette and Riley Pickrell. Foley and Gee helped Canada seize workforce pursuit bronze on the 2018 Commonwealth Video games and completed fifth in the identical occasion in Tokyo.
The street occasions start Aug. 3 after competitors wraps up on the monitor, with 4 gold medals on the road within the males’s and ladies’s street race and time trial occasions.
Coles-Lyster will enhance Canada’s podium probabilities within the ladies’s street race as a part of a gifted group that features Olympians Alison Jackson, Leah Kirchmann and Bonhomme, together with Canadian U23 ladies’s champion Simone Boilard.
Mitchell has rapidly turn out to be the face of the Canadian biking workforce, and her fast rise to the highest has been a whirlwind to say the least. A former varsity soccer participant with the College of Alberta, Mitchell made the transition to trace biking in 2017 after being found at an RBC Coaching Floor occasion — a program designed to find younger Canadian athletes with Olympic potential.
Mitchell entered her first monitor biking race in February 2018, and he or she would go on to win three medals on the Canadian Championships later that yr — together with the nationwide ladies’s dash title. The medals stored coming in 2019 with dash gold and workforce dash silver on the 2019 Pan American Video games in Lima, Peru.
Champion mentality
And now, simply 4 years after her first race, Mitchell is embracing the strain that comes together with being an Olympic champion.
“There’s positively strain going into Paris being the reigning Olympic champion, however anybody can beat anybody and that is at all times been my mentality. Whether or not I’ve a goal on my again or not, I already had that there in my head, that strain was already there,” Mitchell stated.
Mitchell nonetheless has numerous different milestones and challenges she is wanting ahead to alongside the way in which earlier than the Paris Olympics in 2024, together with the UCI Monitor World Championships set for October in France.
“I’ve by no means gained a world championship title. I’ve by no means been to Commonwealth Video games and gained a medal there, so hopefully that is subsequent on the record. There’s simply numerous issues I nonetheless wish to accomplish as an athlete,” Mitchell stated.
Inspiring future cyclists
However representing Canada is about way more than successful medals for Mitchell, as she additionally desires to be a task mannequin for the subsequent technology whereas serving to the game attain new heights.
“I actually hope that my story, and my success with this sport will assist make it develop and turn out to be extra widespread,” Mitchell stated.
“I do know I can provide again to the group and attempt to use my title or use that medal to attempt to inspire youngsters or adults to get on the bike or get energetic and simply hold dwelling their greatest life.”
Mitchell and Genest’s medals in Tokyo have been the primary Olympic monitor biking medals gained by Canadian ladies in 17 years — giving younger ladies across the nation a picture of inspiration on the most important stage.
“I am honoured that I get to indicate ladies and younger ladies that that is a tremendous sport, and you’ll have a ton of enjoyable doing it,” Mitchell stated.
Mitchell stated the final 4 years have flown by. However despite the fact that issues are transferring so rapidly, notably in a shortened quadrennial, she stated she would not have it another method.
“Paris 2024 is simply across the nook; now we have to start out getting factors and qualifying for it beginning this yr. It does not cease and that is what I really like. I do not wish to cease, and I really like getting to do that each single day. I am dwelling my greatest life, It is nice,” Mitchell stated with fun.
You may stream the entire motion from the Commonwealth Video games on CBCsports.ca, CBC Gem and the CBC Sports activities App for iOS and Android units.
