They are already elite in the country, chosen from a pool of 2,000 talented athletes with a variety of sports backgrounds.
But of the 100 remaining, a maximum of 30 athletes will be given funding to support their Olympic dreams.
The RBC Training Ground Final program looks to measure raw talent in the form of explosive strength, endurance and speed — then match those talents with the right sport.
“It’s about sport transition but it’s also about finding the athletes that fell through the cracks,” says Matt McGlynn, RBC vice president of brand marketing. “The sport system is amazing, but there’s always those one-off athletes that may not have been identified early on and we’re just trying to find them and put them in the sport system.”
Megan Andrews is a 14-year-old gymnast from Calgary. After the first round of testing she got a call from Rugby Canada inviting her to practice with the program.
“I’ve never tried any other sport, but I got called here for rugby, so I’ll give that a try,” she said.
The goal is to increase athletes' chance of success, taking some of the random luck out of finding the right combination of sport-specific talent and drive, instead using measured performance to find the best fit.
“I wish I had this opportunity growing up, even before figure skating came into the picture,” said Patrick Chan, a three-time Olympic medallist and former World Champion.
“Elite athletes are getting younger and younger and the level (of performance) is getting higher and higher. We need to be the most efficient we can be in identifying talent,” Chan said.
The program splits $500,000 in training subsidies among up to 30 athletes in the hopes of boosting Canada’s performance on the world stage.
