Canadian athletes amid hectic stretch

COVID-condensed schedules have meant little rest between major global competitions

Separated by eight time zones, but only four days, Sarah Mitton and her Canadian teammates barely had time to do laundry and repack between the world track and field championships and the Commonwealth Games.

Mitton, who captured gold in women’s shot put at the Games in Birmingham, England — which wrapped up Monday — was surprised by the physical and emotional toll of competing in big events back-to-back. “It’s funny, I thought it was going to be easier than it was,” said the 26-year-old from Brooklyn, N.S. “I was like, ‘Yeah, two championships, that’s two opportunities.’ But worlds takes more out of you than you expect, so I’m glad that was first.”

The world championships in Eugene, Ore., were pushed back a year to make room for last summer’s delayed Tokyo Olympics. It was a similar story in swimming, with the worlds postponed nearly a year to this past May in Budapest. The knock-on effect was consecutive international events for many of Canada’s top summer sport athletes.

For Mitton, the Commonwealth title came on the heels of a heartbreaking fourth-place finish at the worlds, which came down to a tiebreaking countback for bronze. Between events, she contracted COVID-19 for the second time in eight months, causing some anxious moments about travel to England from western Oregon.

Several big names passed on competing in Birmingham, including swimmer Penny Oleksiak and sprinters Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown.

Runner Lucia Stafford, 11th in the 1,500 metres last week, pointed out that in a span of 365 days she’d raced at the Olympics, both the world indoor and outdoor championships and the Commonwealth Games. “If you’re having a good

year, momentum can really carry you through. But when you throw in COVID, there’s all these extra hurdles, so to have to compete back-to-back, it’s really, really tough,” Stafford said.

The Games wrapped with Monday’s closing ceremony, and numerous athletes undoubtedly planned to follow the lead of Canadian beach volleyball champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa HumanaParedes, who planned to celebrate their victory with pizza and beer.

“It’s definitely made for a very long season,” said Para swimmer Katarina Roxon, who raced at the Commonwealth Games a few weeks after winning bronze at the world championships. “And it definitely tests how mentally tough you are to go from competition back to training while everyone’s going on

vacation, enjoying themselves ... but you have to still train and get ready for another competition.”

On the plus side, the integration of able-bodied and Para athletes at the Commonwealth Games made stretching her season by a few more weeks well worth it.

“I loved being on this team. This is my fourth Commonwealth Games, and I think this is the best that we’ve meshed together and how the able-bodied (swimmers) are cheering for us. We are one full team, united like every single day … it was a pretty great experience.”

Para swimming star Aurélie Rivard climbed the medal podium several times between the Para world swimming championships in Portugal, the world aquatic championships days later and then the Games.

“It was hard to keep the motivation as high (at the Games) as world championship, so I had to find something different in order to be able to motivate myself every day, different goals than performance at all costs,” said Rivard, who won silver in the 200 individual medley in Birmingham.

The COVID-condensed few years will continue to have an impact on athletes. Normally held every two years, there’s another world track and field championships next summer in Budapest, plus world indoors in the winter.

For the first time ever, the world aquatic championships in June kicked off four in four years. There’s also the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile — and, of course, the 2024 Paris Olympics.