A group of young Toronto athletes will train with Olympians this weekend
Before noon, if you weren’t already impressed
On Saturday morning, while most of us are still asleep (or in the fetal position recovering from a night of competitive meat-eating, should that be your thing) a group of ambitious youngsters will be at York University, hurdling and sprinting.
This isn’t just any track-and-field practice. Seven-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse will be there coaching, alongside three other Olympic stars: sprinter Jacqueline Madogo, middle-distance runner Jazz Shukla and Jesse Zesseu, who won a silver medal in discus at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Related: The accidental ascent of Andre De Grasse
The event, which is not open to public spectators, is being hosted by the Canadian Olympic Committee and Bell, as “an effort to remove barriers to sports for emerging athletes from underrepresented and newcomer communities across Canada,” according to a spokesperson.
If these up-and-coming athletes are already being coached by Olympians, we see podiums in their future.
Related: A gold-medal Olympian dancer is breaking at Scarborough Town Centre this weekend
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
