Canada's Findlay Prepares For Olympic Qualifying

Canada's Paula Findlay, a 21-year-old rookie on the International Triathlon Union (ITU) circuit, won four races, including back-to-back victories at Kitzbuhel and London, two of the stops on the World Championship Series schedule.

Published December 22, 2010 12:07PM

Canada’s Paula Findlay, a 21-year-old rookie on the International Triathlon Union (ITU) circuit, won four races, including back-to-back victories at Kitzbuhel and London, two of the stops on the World Championship Series schedule. After her breakout year, she’s preparing to try to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Findlay, a third-year student at the University of Alberta in biological sciences, just wrote her last exam of the semester. As she did in 2010, Findlay will take the winter semester off to train full-time at Triathlon Canada’s training center in Victoria, B.C. She will move there in February, and share a house with Canadian national team swimmer Julia Wilkinson and cross-country runner Danika Medinski.

Victoria could be Findlay’s home base for much of the next two years, in fact, depending on how things go. A top-eight finish for Findlay in London in August or at the ITU grand final at Beijing in September punches her ticket to London 2012.

“If I do qualify, then I want to make sure that I’m training healthy all year,” Findlay said. “When I’m at school, I tend to get injured and not have time to train and recover properly.”

In Victoria, Findlay, who will be part of a training group that includes 2000 Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield, Kyle Jones and Kirsten Sweetland, part of an elite athletic community embracing swimmers Wilkinson, Ryan Cochrane and others.

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ITU Olympic Qualifying Olympics Paula Findlay