Hockey star Sarah Nurse is out to find the next generation of Olympians in Hamilton

The Canadian Olympic Committee's talent search program is returning to Hamilton for a second time this weekend with Olympic gold medallist and Hamilton hockey star Sarah Nurse as a program ambassador.

The 28-year-old forward is joining her national women's teammate, Burlington-born Renata Fast, and Olympic track and field athlete Madeleine Kelly to promote the program as a way to help young people overcome barriers to becoming professional athletes.

"I don't think there's a program like it in the world, but basically in partnership with the COC and national sport organizations like Rugby Canada, Bobsled Canada and so many other ones, it gives young people the opportunity to show their athletic and Olympic potential," Sarah Nurse told CBC Hamilton earlier this week.

RBC Training Ground looks for people between the ages of 14 and 25 with athletic potential and helps them overcome financial and professional obstacles.

Nurse said she wants to help remove those barriers, especially for girls that don't know how to get started in their careers, or have anxieties about their future in sports.

Having family in sports 'fuelled my fire': Nurse

Nurse, who was born in Burlington and raised in Hamilton, grew up in a family of athletes who encouraged her. 

"I remember watching my cousin Darnell get drafted into the NHL [into the Edmonton Oilers], then seeing my cousin Kia [a WNBA player now in Phoenix, Ariz.] play in the Pan American Games and all of those things really fuelled my fire," she said. 

"They're achieving such standards of excellence and they're achieving such greatness, like I want to be doing that, too."

She played hockey in the city as part of the Hamilton City Hub League before playing in Ancaster and Stoney Creek.

Now, fresh off 2022 wins both at the Olympics in Beijing and the women's world championship, she says she wants to help promote women in sport in particular. 

"Showing that women in sports are valued is so important," said Nurse.

Her involvement with the training ground program is part of those efforts. "It provides amazing access and if you're identified to have Olympic potential and possibly win a medal, you also get funded through the program, which is huge because sports especially at high levels costs money," she said.

"There are so many kids with great athletic potential who don't really know where to go to be identified," she said.

Talent search program runs Saturday at McMaster

This is the eighth annual national search for local athletes, according to Evan MacInnis, technical director of RBC Training Ground. It came to Hamilton for the first time in 2020, where more than 300 athletes signed up.

MacInnis said the program was able to identify 13 future Olympic athletes since its start in 2016 and connected hundreds of young athletes to an Olympic training program.

This weekend's event will be held at the David Braley Athletic Centre at McMaster University on Jan. 28, from 9 a.m. to around 2 p.m and is free for anyone that registers through the official website. 

According to MacInnis, the program requires applicants to take some basic physical tests similar to those done in gym class in school. After four tests, lasting around 90 minutes, the tests are analyzed and shared with the program's sports partners to fit applicants to interested teams.

MacInnis said with some applicants in the past, they found they had potential in sports they didn't consider before the program. 

He shared the story of soccer player Kelsey Mitchell in Lethbridge, Alta., who was identified in the program in 2017 for track cycling and went on to receive gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. 

Nurse also brought up Mitchell's story, saying she wasn't a competitive cyclist before being identified by RBC Training Ground.

"If I remember her story correctly, it was her grandmother that encouraged her to go and give the program a try," said MacInnis. "I'm not even sure if she owned a bicycle at the time."

The talent search program covers a number of sports, including boxing, wrestling, rowing, rugby, canoe, kayak, freestyle and skiing, according to the Training Ground website. 

"This is something everybody can get something back from," MacInnis said. "We want anybody in the region to try out the program. Worst case you get a T-shirt."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.