Competing for Canada, in front of Canada
I meet Joanna at the Athletic Centre, a place I figured is likely very familiar to her. We greet, exchange pleasantries, and immediately start looking for a place to sit down and chat. Having decided, Joanna immediately starts off across the windswept parking lot towards the Tim Hortons in the stadium. She walks with a reserved urgency, making it feel like it’s all she can do to not start jogging or jumping on the spot to make use of her energy. I take off after her, coming to a trot to make up the distance she’s already covered.
That kind of energy, the impression that she manages to be both relaxed and personable, yet ready to go at a moments notice is exactly what Joanna brings to her sport every time she steps up to the line. Wearing fall-appropriate garb, backpack slung across her shoulder, with a very laid-back attitude, you wouldn’t know at first glance that, in addition to studying marketing management, she recently took a podium spot in the world championships for triathlon and is in good standing to see a similar outcome at the Pan Am Games.
Joanna has been a competing triathlete since she was 14-years-old in the Kids of Steel program in the area around her hometown of Carp, Ontario. As she grew older, she jumped to competing in the national series and began representing Canada at the World Championships four years ago. Now she trains with Triathlon Canada whose training centre is, very conveniently, based out of Guelph.
Having heard her personal history in the sport, I then try to shed some of my ignorance of the triathlon by asking a vague question about the structure of the professional competitions. What I get is an intense and enthusiastic description of the inner workings of the tiered professional circuit, new rules and variations on the sport in the last twenty years, and a brief description of the major players. Only when pressed does Joanna admit, in her nonchalant style, that her competitive record includes competitions all across the world, against all manner of other professionals. She took third in the world championships in the last two years and, when asked, calmly admits she’s expecting a similar, if not better result, in July 2015.
One thing she shares in common with many of her co-competitors is a recent history of injury and setback. Looking at her gait you wouldn’t be able to tell, but Joanna is coming off of a fractured heel, which she only just learned about recently after almost 11 weeks of training and competition. She will find out soon if it has started to knit, or whether she will require a cast. When I asked her if she thought it was going to affect her training and performance at the Pan Am Games, she brushed off the question. No injury could keep her from the games and the win that, in her mind, she’s almost guaranteed.