CSIO TO2015 ONTARIO ATHLETE TRACKER: , CYCLING & DIVING

Yours to Discover: Team Canada and the Ontario Athletes for the 2015 Pan/ Parapan Am Games For Immediate Release

TORONTO (June 19, 2015) – This week CSIO’s TO2015 Ontario Athlete Tracker takes a closer look at the Ontario athletes that will represent Canada at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Wheelchair Basketball, Cycling and Diving.

WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL:

Wheelchair Basketball Canada and the Canadian Paralympic Committee named their men’s and women’s roster for the Parapan Am Games, nominating a total of seven Ontario athletes across the two teams. The Ontario players named to the rosters are:

Team Canada Men:

• Adam Lancia, Scarborough, ON • Abdi Dini, Scarborough, ON • Tyler Miller, Kitchener, ON

All of the Ontario men named to the team were a part of the gold medal winning 2012 Team and the bronze medal winning team that competed at the 2011 Parapan Am Games.

Team Canada Women:

• Katie Harnock, Elmira, ON • , London, ON • , Richmond Hill, ON • Melanie Hawtin, Oakville, ON

Katie Harnock and Tracey Ferguson were part of the Women’s National team that won silver at the 2011 Parapan Am Games. Both Katie and Tracey, along with Melanie Hawtin and Darda Sales, are the reigning World Champions in Women’s Wheelchair Basketball (2014).

CSIO works closely with Wheelchair Basketball Canada as their full-time National Academy is based out of the Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC) in Scarborough where CSIO’s main office and performance facility are located. Wheelchair Basketball is also an OHPSI recognized sport, receiving investment primarily in the areas of sport science and sport medicine. The Academy features National and Provincial Team level athletes as well as other elite wheelchair basketball athletes that are progressing towards making these National Teams. Aside from the athletes listed above, many of the other players named to the Parapan Am Teams now reside in Ontario and train out of the Academy, including Robert ‘Bo’ Hedges from Wonowon, B.C., who also works part-time at CSIO’s reception desk.

The Men’s and Women’s Senior National Teams centralize for training camps ahead of international competition at TPASC where they have access to sport science and sport medicine support through CSIO and our team of experts. CSIO’s Integrated Support Team (IST) working with the Wheelchair Basketball athletes includes Mental Performance Consultant, Dr. Judy Goss; Athletic Therapist, Krista McHardy; Lead Sport Nutritionist, Nicole Springle; and Strength and Conditioning Coach, Colby Hathaway, and a full complement of other practitioners across other offered disciplines.

Ontario based coaches and support staff named to the team include Women’s Assistant Coach, Michael Broughton (Toronto, ON); Men’s Interim Head Coach, Steve Bialowas (Toronto, ON); and Men’s Assistant Coach, Paul Bowes (London, ON).

CYCLING:

Cycling Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee recently named the complete cycling team for the 2015 Pan

Am Games, including track cycling, mountain bike, BMX, and road cycling disciplines. A total of eight Ontario athletes were named across all disciplines. They are:

Track Cycling • Adam Jamieson, Barrie, ON - Men’s Team Pursuit • Sean MacKinnon, Hamilton, ON - Men’s Team Pursuit • Ed Veal, Queensville, ON - Men’s Team Pursuit • Joseph Veloce, Fonthill, ON - Men’s Sprint, Men’s Team Sprint

Mountain Bike • Emily Batty, Brooklin, ON - Women’s cross-country • Derek Zandstra, Trenton, ON - Men’s cross-country

BMX • Amelia Walsh, Ayr, ON - Women’s BMX

Road • Sean MacKinnon, Hamilton, ON - Men’s Road Race

Adam Jamieson, Sean MacKinnon, Amelia Walsh, Joseph Veloce, and Emily Batty have all been a part of CSIO’s OHPSI program. OHPSI is a program designed by CSIO to provide sport science and sport medicine services to athletes who are best capable of achieving future international success on senior national teams in targeted winter and summer sports. OHPSI investment also supports the creation of full time coaching roles, contributes to training camps and international events, as well as provides for coach professional development.

The current OHPSI athletes, as well as the complete track cycling team train primarily out of the new Velodrome at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, ON. A legacy facility of the Toronto 2015 Games, CSIO has a satellite office and staff of expert practitioners working at the facility. Sport Physiologist, Mike Patton; Sport Nutritionist, Christine Dziedzic; and Strength and Conditioning Coach, Brendan Murphy make the primary IST of practitioners working with the cycling athletes and coaches in Milton.

Ontario members of the coaching and support staff named to the team include Head Coach/High-Performance Director, Jacques Landry (Ottawa, ON); High Performance Manager, Kris Westwood (Ottawa, ON); Track Sprint Coach, Erin Hartwell (Dundas, ON); Men’s Endurance Track Coach, Ian Melvin (Milton, ON); Track & Road Mechanic, Dan Peters (Hamilton, ON); and Mountain Bike Mechanic, Adam Trotter (Waterloo, ON).

DIVING:

The final announcement to recap in this week’s installment of CSIO’s TO2015 Ontario Athlete Tracker is the diving team nominated by Diving Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee. All athletes named to the team were from Quebec, coinciding with the National Training centre being located there. While CSIO does not work directly with diving’s Senior National Team athletes and those named to the team for the 2015 Games, diving is an OHPSI supported sport, collaborating with Diving Canada and Dive Ontario in an emerging high performance program based out of TPASC. This program takes place in a state-of-the-art training environment with a world class coach, Gilles Emptoz-Lacote (formally from France). CSIO works with Dive Ontario and Diving Canada to provide leadership, sport science and sport medicine programs and services to those athletes and coaches that are best capable of achieving future success on the Senior National Team.

To view the complete CSIO TO2015 Ontario Athlete Tracker, visit our website: http://csiontario.ca/home/category/athlete-tracker/

About Canadian Sport Institute Ontario Located at the new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, a legacy facility of the Toronto 2015 Pan/, Canadian Sport Institute Ontario (CSIO) is a non-profit organization committed to the pursuit of excellence by providing world-class programs, services, and leadership to high performance athletes and coaches to enhance their ability to achieve international podium performances. CSIO offers athletes a range of sport science and sport medicine services including nutrition, physiology, biomechanics, strength & conditioning, mental performance, sport therapy and life services. CSIO also delivers programming and services to National and Provincial Sport Organizations and coaches to work towards building a stronger sport system in Ontario and Canada.

CSIO services approximately 700 high performance athletes and 250 coaches, at its main facility at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, its satellite location at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, and in daily training environments across Ontario. CSIO is part of a larger network of 4 institutes and 3 multi-sport centres across the country known as the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network, working in partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee. CSIO is further supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Sport Canada, Own the Podium, and the Coaching Association of Canada, along with the National and Provincial Sport Organizations within the sector.

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Media Contact: Laura Albright, Senior Communications Coordinator Canadian Sport Institute Ontario Tel: 416.596.1240 Ext. 238 Email: [email protected] www.csiontario.ca