How a college campus in Victoria became home to Canadian world medallists
Athletic hub a well-oiled laboratory of high-performance training
The track on which world records, breakthrough medals and Paralympic dreams were forged sits hidden in a slight valley next to a parking lot.
It's a 400-metre loop that's provided the groundwork for so much success over the past half-decade, yet it's extremely easy to miss amid the campus buildings perched up above.
But when the track does come into view, you become witness to a well-oiled laboratory of high-performance training — exemplified by the image of world-record 1,500-metre runner Nate Riech jogging in a lane to the right of two-time wheelchair racing world medallist Austin Smeenk on a Tuesday morning in January, nine months away from the Paralympic Games.
The track is part of Athletics Canada's West Hub, located at the Pacific Institute for Sport Education on Victoria's Camosun College campus.
The hub started in 2014 as a training centre for the next generation of Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls. Ten years later, it's home to Riech, Smeenk and many other athletes who have everything from physiotherapists to sports scientists and wheelchair technicians at their disposal, all in one place.
"When you're surrounded by people that are making the right decisions, it's easy to do the same for yourself," said Smeenk, who moved to Victoria from Toronto in September 2022.
Indeed, success has only bred more success in the B.C. capital.
Heather Hennigar, a former track athlete turned endurance coach, was the first full-time staffer to migrate west in 2014. Ten years later, she now holds the position of hub lead.
Until 2018, she worked on development with younger athletes who had either yet to hit their prime, possessed untapped potential or both.
"I think that was one of the real positives was that there was a long-term vision and an understanding that these things take time. [You] can't flick a light switch and suddenly everything's going to be in place," she says now. "Any time there's aspirations and you look at where you are on that trajectory, it's motivating."
Hennigar, who is originally from the opposite Canadian coast in South Maitland, N.S., said she emphasized clear communication between coaches and athletes while providing fulsome support across all aspects of training and of life.
"The major things for me are that people aren't wasting time worrying in terms of putting something on the table, that it's an open learning environment, that people are working well together," she said.
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Now, the hub features multiple training rooms, specialized coaches and trainers who are at the ready to address any lingering issues — all within one building.
It's not just Paralympic athletes either, though they provide the majority. On any given day, you may see Riech in the gym working out alongside two-time Canadian Olympian Gabriela DeBues-Stafford. Three Olympic triathlon hopefuls also call the West Hub their training base.
In 2018, Hennigar imported Riech to Victoria as an athlete who had just committed fully to Para sports.
Riech, who continues to train there today, said he originally had no intention of staying. He hadn't had the best experience with prior coaches and knew he had some issues trusting others with the progress of his own career.
But with said career somewhat stalling, he knew change was necessary and he sought out the type of team environment the West Hub could provide.
Success quickly followed. Riech set and reset the world record in the men's T38 1,500 metres multiple times, won the world championship in the discipline in 2019 and, after a Victoria-based COVID quarantine, took the Paralympic title in 2021 as well. In 2023, he successfully defended his world title. Now, he hopes the hub helps propel him to more Paralympic gold.
Hennigar, meanwhile, became his "track mom."
"When I'm doing something wrong, she makes it clear that I am. But when I have successes, we celebrate like I would with my mom, and she makes it very clear that she's proud of me. And so, I want to continue to make sure PISE and the West Hub stays the best hub and we continue to build up those next athletes," Riech, now 29, said.
Meanwhile, amid Riech's success, more athletes began flocking to Victoria. The veteran leader, to use team sports parlance, even lives in a house dubbed 'The Cottage' which sits five minutes away from the hub, alongside fellow Paralympic hopefuls like Zachary Gingras, Aaron Ahl and Keegan Gaunt.
Riech has taken the 22-year-old Gingras, who also has a coordination impairment, under his wing. The two share Blizzards from Dairy Queen every week (though Riech laments the lack of selection that is available in the U.S.), but Riech is also sure to barge into Gingras' room if he's not awake and ready for training on time.
When Smeenk moved to Victoria in 2022, it was a way for him to avoid the distractions and lengthy commutes that interrupted training in Toronto. Small considerations like the timing of a meal following a workout suddenly became much easier to manage.
But the 27-year-old was also desperate to reach the podium after coming agonizingly close with one fourth- and three fifth-place finishes across the prior worlds and Tokyo Paralympics.
"It was a confident thing to do to come out here and try something new. I think that any time you want to go to a new place, you're going to have to throw out the old road map. So there was for sure doubt that the end result was unseen and untouched ground," Smeenk said.
"But once I got the season rolling and started to establish some key performances, I was very confident that being here, it was going to turn out well."
Working under coach Geoff Harris, Smeenk honed both his training and his racing chair itself.
But his relationship with Riech after parachuting onto his turf was slightly rocky at the start.
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"There was kind of a divide between the wheelchair athletes and the ambulatory athletes," Riech said. "And we're certainly both very stubborn and very fiery. So I think we get each other on that level. He's a bit more vocal than I am. I'm more like 'see what I do,' and that's kind of how I carry myself."
Slowly, though, the two intense competitors gained respect for one another, and even formed a bond — one that was helped along by Thomas Normandeau, a close friend of Riech's and another middle-distance runner.
Normandeau, 28, brought the lightheartedness and levity.
"He keeps everyone competing at their best because there's so much pressure. We don't need to talk about the pressure while we're at the Games. We need to laugh and play cards. He's twerking on the wall. We're doing charades and being complete ding dongs," Riech said.
Amid that atmosphere, Smeenk finally broke through at the 2023 world championships in Paris, scooting to a pair of medals — his first two at a major senior tournament.
He compared the hub to an Olympic or Paralympic village.
"It's really like being at a gala for Fortune 500 CEOs. You're like, wow, everyone here is incredibly high performers. It's an incredibly powerful environment to be a part of because you draw off of the energy of success from others around you," he said.
"And for that, it's one of the best places in the world."
