An unknown cycling entity before last month, Canadian Georgia Simmerling is gunning for a spot on the country's track cycling team for this summer's Rio Olympics. If successful, it will be her third Olympics — in three different sports.
Few athletes have the physical and mental capacity to qualify for the Olympics in one sport but one Canadian is on course to represent her country in a third this summer.
Vancouver native Georgia Simmerling (26) is not yet a year cycling but she’s already won a UCI World Cup gold medal as part of the team pursuit squad.
She, along with Jasmin Glaesser, Laura Brown and Stephanie Roorda defeated Great Britain in the gold medal ride off in Hong Kong last month, dismissing the age-old belief that elite performance takes 10,000 hours of practice.
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The team for the Games in Rio de Janeiro will be selected in April but Simmerling looks a shoe-in after proving her worth in the short time she’s been in the squad.
It’s only by a stroke of pure misfortune she’s in this position too.
In her stunning career so far she’s raced the Super G event at 2010 Vancouver Olympics and in skicross at the Sochi Olympics two years ago.
She’s a five-time World Cup medallist in skicross and was ranked No 2 in the world for a time.
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Incidentally, she could be going for the rowing squad as well this year but when that federation demanded she go full-time with them she declined, opting to stay on the slopes instead.
She decided to hop on her bike to keep fit but when she shattered her wrist in seven places — an injury that required two plates and 10 screws to fix - last winter’s skicross season was finished.
She then got serious about cycling and less than two weeks after surgery, she was working out on a stationary bike – and liking it.
She phoned Canada’s endurance track cycling coach and asked what she needed to do to make the team.
"He said ‘Call me again if you ride an individual pursuit in three minutes and 45 seconds.’ And I said ‘OK."’
Simmerling travelled to Los Angeles to train, and had made the time Griffin wanted in a week-and-a-half.
"I’m just a very goal-driven athlete, and I had an end… a big goal, and a big dream, and in order to achieve those big goals and big dreams, you need to break it down and see what you need to do tomorrow, and see what you need to do in the next month, and see the steps that you need to take in order to achieve that big goal," Simmerling said.
Impressive…
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