Eva Gifford: Rossland’s rising star triathlete
By Allyson Kenning
The Mountain Kingdom definitely has a track record for producing world class athletes. Kerrin Lee Gartner, George Grey, and Dallas Drake are some notable names that have spent time in Rossland honing their talents. Of course, they all are known for winter sports, but did you know we have a rising star in the triathlon world from our midst as well? Let me introduce to you Rossland’s own Eva Gifford, a 19-year-old RSS grad, university student, prospective orthopedic surgeon, and hard-training triathlete.
Having done some long distance running in high school, Gifford’s running mates encouraged her to try out triathlon, and in December 2009 she signed up to participate in the Wasa Lake Triathlon, near Cranbrook. She decided to do the Olympic distance and then began training in earnest for the event, which took place in June 2010.
In order to train, she became involved in the local High Altitude Triathlon Club (HATC). The club has a core group of about 10 or so members, most of whom are training for Iron Man competitions. They hold group training sessions for swimming at the Trail pool (they must be dedicated if they’re going to pay the higher Rossland rate for using the facility!), and they support each other during long distance bike and running sessions. They travel to events together and have their own team jerseys.
“It’s a very Kootenay-based organization,” Gifford told me in a phone interview.
After competing at Wasa Lake, she became hooked on the sport.
So serious is she about triathlon that GIfford recently decided to transfer from SFU to UVic this year in order to train with coach Noa Deutsch. A native New Zealander, Deutsch is known for training elite athletes in long distance sports and is a noted sports nutritionist, exercise physiologist, and biomechanist. She also runs a triathlon training camp in Penticton in addition to her coaching practice in Victoria.
Although not liking the suburban aspect of living in Burnaby and Coquitlam (Gifford admits to being a small-town person at heart), the switch to Victoria will not only provide her with a change of pace and scenery, but also a change in majors. She’ll be leaving behind biomedical physiology at SFU and taking up biochemistry at UVic. It’s a demanding program, but at SFU she got used to balancing triathlon training with a rigorous school schedule.
“I just did it and balanced it out. I find training relaxes me from school. I really just enjoy going out and riding my bike or going for a run or swimming. Even though it’s a lot of work - I’m putting in about 15 hours a week of training - it works well with what I’m doing with homework and schoolwork. I can come home from being at school and go and work out and feel relaxed enough that I can go back into my schoolwork not feeling like such a head case. It is a balancing act, especially with stress, but I enjoy the challenge of doing it.”
This summer, Gifford competed in two triathlons, one in Sooke and one last weekend in Kelowna, the Canadian Nationals. In the Sooke race, she placed 6th over all in her gender and in the Kelowna race her time would have placed her 3rd in the 20-24 age group, even thought she competed in the 18-19 year old category. In that competition, she posted her personal best time of 2 hours 30 minutes exactly.
This finish qualified her for the Age Group World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand, taking place in October 2012 (anyone who doesn’t have “elite status” in the International Triathlon Union is an “age grouper”, meaning that they are categorized by age). Gifford will be going to represent Canada at this event.
Not bad for a young woman who had a rough start to the sport: Gifford broke her foot in the Wasa race and spent 2010 coming back from that injury. 2011 is actually her inaugural year training and competing in triathlons.
With all elite athletes, goal-setting is important, and Gifford’s goal is to become an elite status triathlete in the Olympic distance (1500m swim, 40km bike ride, and 10k run) within the next two to three years.
She explains what gaining elite status involves. “The rules are pretty strict. For Triathlon BC--that’s the organization here--you need to be in three sanctioned races in BC and you need to place in the top five in your gender. So it doesn’t matter what age you’re competing against, you just need to be in the top five. And that has to be within three races, so it’s a pretty hard goal to achieve, especially since I’m 19 and I have to compete against 30 year-old women - and they’re pretty fast!”
She estimates that she’ll need to shave at least five to 10 minutes off of her personal best time in order to gain elite status.
Career-wise, Gifford’s plan right now is to finish her biochemistry degree and go into med school, with the goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon.
“I’d one day love to see myself working in the Kootenays. I just love the area, and it’s a job I can do here.”
You can follow Gifford's adventures on her blog, Red Wheels and Ramblings, and if there are any local businesses out there who would like to support her on her journey to Auckland in 2012, she is looking for sponsors.
Good luck, Eva!