‘There’s not a lot of words’ for Baden cyclist heading to Paris Olympics
Posted Jun 28, 2024 04:34:09 AM.
Last Updated Jun 28, 2024 11:16:57 AM.
An athlete from Baden, Ont. will soon be packing up his bicycle and heading to Paris.
Tyler Rorke, 21-year old , has made the Olympic team for Canada.
“There’s not a lot of words to describe the feeling? It’s something, I’ve been working toward for a really long time, and it’s happening now. So I mean, it feels pretty good.”
Rorke said he and his teammates knew after a race in April that their statistics qualified them for the Olympics. The official announcement from Team Canada was released on Tuesday.
Rorke’s family is proud of him making the Olympic team, and he described their reaction as, “I think it was just jumping and screaming and hugging.”
He will compete in team sprint, and individual sprint for track cycling.
He said of Team Canada’s cycling chances to win a medal, “We’re in the mix” for the team sprint.
For himself in individual sprint, he believes he’ll be the youngest, or at least one of the youngest athletes in Paris in that sport, and said while chuckling about it, “I’m just hoping for a decent result.”
If he or his team win a medal, Rorke expects a good party afterwards, but for now he’s “pretty head down, focused on training right now…what happens and I can figure that out afterwards.”
Rorke said he trains for several hours per day at the velodrome in Milton, Ont. and in road rides.
Him and the rest of the 21-member Canadian team leave for Paris on July 28, with competitions from August 5 to 12.
Rorke won a gold medal in the Pan Am games in Santiago last year.
