Like any good coach, Canadian Olympic triathlon team mentor Jonathan Hall protects his athletes. In this case, it means staying in Canada as long as possible before departing today for the 2016 Rio Summer Games.
The men’s race is next Thursday and women’s race, featuring Victoria’s Kirsten Sweetland, is Saturday, Aug. 20. This is about as close as they can cut it because there needs to be time allowed for acclimatizing to the environmental conditions in Rio.
“It’s been strange to be sitting here in Victoria and watching everything unfold in Rio,” said Hall, the high-performance director and head coach for the Victoria-based Triathlon Canada training centre, and Canadian Olympic team coach for Rio.
“But that gives us an advantage because we can learn from the other sports already there. We made the right decision” to stay away from Brazil as long as possible, he said.
“We knew Rio would provide a variety of challenges. And those challenges have come to fruition during the Games. We want to minimize the risks associated with Rio.”
Of most concern to Hall is security. Not concerning terrorism, but everyday street crime.
“The other coaches there have told me the venues are outstanding, but the lack of security is an issue,” Hall said. “There were numerous muggings when we were there [last year for test events]. There has been an escalation during the Games to the point of being brazen.”
World media is widely reporting a crime wave that has enveloped Rio during the Games.
“We have on-ground intelligence” from Canadian athletes and coaches who have competed in the early part of the Games this week, Hall said.
Part of the plan includes not staying in the Olympic Village, which is a two-hour drive in heavy and hairy traffic from the triathlon venue. The triathlon team will instead stay at a hotel in Ipanema, which is close to the race site. It is the same hotel in which Victoria-based Rowing Canada has placed its athletes.
“The rowers will move out this weekend and we will move in,” Hall said.
Hall wants as few distractions as possible for the first Canadian Olympic triathlon team of the post-Simon Whitfield era. The five Canadian triathletes for the Rio Games are all Olympic rookies. They are Sweetland, Amelie Kretz, Sarah-Anne Brault, Andrew Yorke and Tyler Mislawchuk.
“This is basically our 2020 Tokyo group,” Hall said.
