Andre De Grasse was named Canada's track & field athlete of the year
And several Canadian athletes are speaking up about anti-Black racism and white supremacy
Hello,
There’s a lot in this issue: Athletics Canada announced their 2019 award winners online throughout the week. A lot of athletes spoke out about their experiences with racism. Protests at the Olympics definitely won’t be allowed by the IOC, but that might not matter if the Olympics don’t even happen.
There are a lot of videos embedded below, so if this issue gets cut off in your inbox, you can check it out online.
I hope you’re staying safe and taking care of yourself.
If you want to reach out, you can email me at runthenorthnews@gmail.com.
Let’s get to it.
— Erin @ Run the North
Andre De Grasse named Canada’s track & field athlete of the year
Athletics Canada announced the winners of their 2019 awards this week, making the announcements over several days on social media.
🏅Andre De Grasse took home two of the biggest prizes: top athlete and top track athlete. His two world championships medals — bronze in the 100m and silver in the 200m — capped off a strong 2019 and his big comeback, where he reasserted himself as one of the world’s best sprinters.
Here is the 100m world championship race:
And here is the 200m world championship race:
🏅Most outstanding single performance went to Moh Ahmed for his 5,000m bronze medal run at the world championships. This was Canada’s first *ever* medal in distance running at a world championships or an Olympics.
You can watch that race below.
🏅Decathlete Damian Warner won combined events athlete of the year. Damian won the prestigious Gotzis Hypomeeting meet. That’s where he ran 10.12 in the 100m, the fastest time ever recorded in that event by a decathlete. He also won decathlon gold at the PanAm Games in Peru and bronze at the world championships.
You can watch his 10.12 performance below.
🏅Racewalker Evan Dunfee won off-track athlete of the year. He broke his own 10,000m Canadian record in 2019 and won bronze in the 50k racewalk at the world championships in absolutely brutal conditions.
You can watch the world championship 50K race below.
🏅The top field athlete was pole vaulter Alysha Newman, who broke her own Canadian record last year and placed fifth at the world championships.
🏅Decathlete Pierce LePage won university athlete of the year. Pierce won bronze at the PanAm Games and placed fifth at the world championships.
🏅 Brent Lakatos won para athlete of the year in wheelchair events. He won gold in the 100m and 800m and silver in the 400m at the world championships.
🏅Middle-distance runner Nathan Riech won para athlete of the year in ambulatory events. He won gold in the 1,500m at the PanAm Games and the world championships.
🏅Thrower Trinity Tutti won U20 athlete of the year. Trinity, who competes in the discus and shotput, won both U20 Canadian titles in 2019, and won the gold in shotput and U20 silver in discus at the U20 PanAm Games.
🏅Middle-distance runner Abdullahi Hassan won U18 athlete of the year. He set two U18 Canadian records in 2019, in the 600m and the 800m. He placed third in the Canadian championships in the 800m, behind racing heavyweights Brandon McBride and Marco Arop.
Athletes speak out on racism, mental health
👟World champion hurdler Perdita Felicien appeared on the podcast Isolation Nation with Michal Landsberg. Her appearance is spread out over two episodes. The first also features current CFLer, Montreal Alouettes running back James Wilder Jr. and the second also featured former CFL player Orlando Bowen.
Both conversations are about anti-Black racism, dealing with mental health during the pandemic and more.
👟Donovan Bailey also appeared on Isolation Nation to discuss his own mental health struggles.
👟Donovan Bailey also appeared on a CTV special Realities of Racism to talk about anti-Black racism in Canada and what he experienced throughout his athletic career:
The danger of Canadian racism is that “in Canada, it’s racism with a smile,” he explained.
“There’s gotta be a different game plan for each of [these types of racism].”
He said Black people and other people of colour in Canada are invited “into the room” or to apply for jobs, but that often this show of inclusion and diversity is only symbolic.
“We know for sure that in many cases, [the] decision’s already been made,” he said. “I think that that’s a big part of the problem.
“One of the things that we certainly encourage, is that you have to be able to vote,” he said, speaking on how people of colour can make themselves heard in Canada. “You have to be able to own businesses, you have to be able to be in the boardroom … be a part of the decision-making process. You have to be entrepreneurs.”
👟Donovan has made the rounds this week, as he also stopped by SportsNet to discuss how we can fight racism in sports:
[Moh Ahmed:] Visibly being a person of color, being Muslim, being a Somali and carrying a Muslim name — all of those identities went against me from a very young age. An Ethiopian Canadian poet named Boonaa Mohammed, who is also Muslim and Black, says in one of his poems, “I’m black and Muslim, everywhere I go someone hates me.”
👟Moh Ahmed also spoke to The Shakeout podcast about the racism he experiences as a Black Muslim athlete. He also talks about his career and how running saved his life.
👟Hurdler and bobsledder Phylicia George shared a powerful eight-minute video on Instagram.
👟Kenyan marathoner, who just ran the Ottawa marathon virtually in Kenya, wrote a piece for iRun about what it’s like to be a Kenyan athlete coming to North America for races and the racism he experiences:
I think the best way to fight racism is to stand for each other. Refuse a favour being offered to you for being from a certain race—this means “white privilege.” Stand up for your friends from another race whenever they are looked down upon. If you see Kenyan runners at your next marathon, applaud. But also treat the other black people you meet with equal respect.
It is my plea to all runners across the world that we all see each other as one family. We must stand for each other the way one would stand with a brother or a sister. This world can be a better place without racism. Let it begin with each of us, today.
👟American icon Allyson Felix was on the cover of Parents magazine. The conversation covers motherhood, anti-Black racism, Black maternal health, the Olympic postponement and why Allyson spoke out about not getting maternity coverage from her sponsor Nike:
“I am hopeful, but we have a long way to go,” says Felix. “Unfortunately, a week or two of protest is not going to turn our country’s racial disparities off, but this time of reflection is so important and can create change. My continued hope for my country, my people, and my daughter is that each of us will have hard and honest looks at ourselves and see what changes and perspective shifts we need to make. I believe there is a fear problem throughout our society. The truth is that many white people are afraid of Black people. Really pause there. Ask yourself if you walked into a room that was predominately — 60 percent — Black how would you feel? Would you be a little nervous? Would you feel safe? Is that a space you would want to go back to tomorrow? I believe the honest answers to those questions are so important to bridging the racial disparities in our country. We have to look at truth. Most white people that I know plainly and clearly state that they do not hate Black people, but I’m asking you, are you afraid of us?”
👟American icon Meb Keflezighi discussed being a Black runner in the U.S. with Outside:
I like to think our sport is very inclusive. And I’ve seen that, over the years, more African-American, more Indian, more Asian people participate. But it’s still a predominantly white sport—especially cross-country or distance running. We need to reach out to more African-Americans and people of color to participate in road racing events. Distance running, I’ve always said, is where nobody knows your religion, or what your educational background is—you just go out there and run 26.2 miles. But you do see what the majority of the people doing it look like. With the benefits of being a distance runner for mental health, if we can get more people doing it, it would be a winning situation for everybody. Of every race.
Canadian universities cancel fall sports, including cross-country
USports, the governing body of sports at Canadian universities, has cancelled all varsity sports for the remainder of 2020. This impacts field hockey, soccer, football and cross-country.
Because the season was cancelled, athletes will not lose a year of eligibility. But it’s trickier for runners. In Canada, cross-country and track are counted together as single year of eligibility. If you run one and not the other, you lose a year eligibility for both. So if track in 2021 happens and this rule doesn’t change, all Canadian collegiate runners will lose a cross-country season unless they also sit out track.
In the U.S., cross-country, outdoor track and indoor track all track eligibility separately.
You can see the full announcement here.
The Olympics actually happening is still uncertain, but the IOC is certain about one thing: athlete protests are banned
As the Olympics work towards making a year-long postponement possible, a lot of questions hang in the air about the 2020(1) games. Can there be fans? How will athletes travel to and from the games safely? Will social distancing still be needed by then and how is that possible at the Olympics? How much is this costing? Who is paying for it? Are sponsors going to stick it out another year?
CBC Sports posted a good Q&A that tries to tackle most of these questions. Honestly, though, most of the answers are “We don’t know.” And that’s true for pretty much every question from “Where will the events be held?” to “Can the Games even happen in 2021?”
The one thing that the IOC was firm about this week, though, was that political protests will not be tolerated at the Olympics. Rule 50 of the Olympic charter states that “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
In the wake of an IOC meeting this week, the Telegraph confirmed that the Olympics will uphold this rule for the 2020(1) Games and that protests of any kind will not be tolerated:
It is understood the IPC is reluctant to allow Black Lives Matter protests for fear it would discriminate against other forms of banned protests for different causes.
“Through the very nature of its activities and its vision to make for an inclusive world, the IPC aspires for a global society without any form of unlawful discrimination,” read a statement.
“While we strongly encourage para athletes to advocate their rights and stand up for what they believe in, we do have a policy that aims to ensure the Paralympic Games are not used as a protest platform.”
American hammer thrower Gwen Berry, who is serving a suspension for protesting at the 2019 PanAm Games, wrote an open letter arguing against this position:
What infuriates me is the IOC’s own museum, in Lausanne, promotes and celebrates the importance of equality and respect. The IOC web site praises the sacrifice of athletes like Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Muhammad Ali for their protests, that brought attention to issues of race and equality – and yet the IOC destroyed Tommie and John’s career.
The IOC’s website for athlete support, Athlete365, also recognizes the sacrifice and impact that the protests of Tommie, John and other athletes like Lee Evans.
Yet, the new rule 50 for the Olympics ban any type of similar protest.
The last few weeks have shown the issues of poverty and race are the same, if not worse, than they were in 1968 and the IOC’s stance on athletes rights is confusing at best and outright hypocritical at worst.
Several Canadian athletes spoke out against the anti-protest stance of the IOC on social media, including Gabriela DuBues-Stafford, Kevin Sullivan and Perdita Felicien.
Decathlete Damian Warner spoke to CBC Sports about the issue:
In light of recent protests seeking racial equality in the United States and Canada, Warner, 30, opened up about his belief that the IOC is unwilling to provide a platform for athletes.
“Organizations like the Olympic Committee always want to talk about how they want the athlete to show their character and be who they are and they want us to go out there and perform and do all this other stuff,” Warner told CBC Sports on Friday.
“But when it comes to actually hearing what they have to say, they don't really want to hear it. They just want us to go there and perform so they can make money and that's the unfortunate part of this situation.”
Rob Watson has run a sub 15-minute 5K every year for 15 years
Canadian marathoner and Mile2Marathon coach Rob Watson has run a sub 15:00 5K every year for 15 years.
He ran a time trial on May 27 to keep his streak alive and snuck in under the gun with a 14:59 finish time.
What was it like to run around Toronto?
On May 31, ultrarunners Mark Carey and Claire Heslop ran around Toronto. They followed the 135km border.
The initiative was to raise money for Canadian Red Cross’s fight against COVID-19. They completed the run just under 19 hours.
Mark Carey, who originally conceived the idea after his Sulphur Spring 100-miler was cancelled, wrote about the event in a post on Medium. It’s a lengthy piece that goes over the concept, the training and fundraising efforts and the run itself:
I didn’t know how fast we were moving: anything feels fast compared to the jogging/walking/shuffling I was doing before. But it felt good and all the mileage on my legs and body didn’t matter anymore. I wouldn’t call it a “runner’s high”, but it is quite exhilarating to find that you have this strength, this speed, this feeling of almost invincibility, of moving beyond the fatigue and sore muscles and joints, and moving into this higher gear that you didn’t know you had.
For four to five kilometres, we were running at close to 5 minutes per kilometre, a pace that’s faster than most of my training runs. John was right there with me, encouraging me to keep going. But as the chart above shows, I couldn’t keep it up, and needed to walk for a few km as we got very close to the finish. But it was fun.
During the walking break, Claire and Teddi caught up and we had only about 2km to go. Although I wasn’t feeling great at this point, it was time to start running, to finish strong. And we did.
They exceeded their $10,000 but are still accepting donations.
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Thanks for reading. Stay safe, and keep on running.
I’ll see you next week.