PhD candidate headed to World Championships
You might not expect a world-class athlete to also be a postdoctoral fellow, but Becky MacPherson is doing just that. MacPherson will be working on her research while training to compete with the Team Canada Women’s Masters team at the World Ultimate Guts Championships (WUGC) in London, England, from June 18 to 25, 2016.
Macpherson spent three years of her career playing for the University of Guelph women’s Ultimate Frisbee team, and is now back at the university doing her postdoctoral research with Dr. David Wright in the department of Human Health and Nutritional Science. She will be proudly representing Guelph at the world championships in June.
Countries from all over the world will be arriving in London in June to compete for the highest honour in the world of Ultimate, the world championship gold medal. The last WUGC took place in Japan in 2012, where Canada took home the silver medal in the women’s masters division. This year, team Canada has another shot at the coveted gold [pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…highest honour in the world of Ultimate Frisbee…[/pullquote]
medal.
The women’s masters division consists of players age thirty and up, and for MacPherson, it is her first time competing for team Canada.
“I’m not getting any younger. I’ve never tried out for team Canada before and the timing was right; I have the time to do it, [and] my friends were all trying out, so it’s going to be a good time. And plus we having a good chance of winning gold!” said MacPherson with a laugh.
The team is putting in the hours in preparation for the tournament in June.
“We have monthly team practices in Montreal […] We also have a team trainer, so I have my own training program from him and he also sends weekly things that the team does,” MacPherson explained.
The majority of this year’s team reside in Montreal. However, five members, including MacPherson, travel monthly from Toronto to practice with the team. The commitment to the sport of Ultimate is apparent in all levels of the game.
When asked what she loves about the sport, Macpherson answered, “The people. It’s just a great community; [Ultimate] is competitive but it’s [also] spirited.”
To anyone who is interested in trying the sport, Macpherson suggested being open-minded.
“Just go out and try it, just play it’s fun! You’ll learn a lot and you’ll meet a lot of people,” she said.
The 2016 Canadian women’s masters team will be heading down to the United States for a scrimmage against Team USA women’s masters. The American team beat them in the final in 2012, so this scrimmage will be their first real test to see where the Canadians stand heading into this year’s world championship competition.