Team Canada hopeful works to keep Olympic dream alive during the pandemic

It wasn't all that long ago that 20-year-old Olympic hopeful Myles Misener-Daley was just a promising young soccer player, but by middle school, it became clear to his coaches that he was different.

"I played soccer since as long as I can remember, but everyone kind of took notice that I was one of the fastest guys on the field," he said. 

"So whether they put me on defence to run back — or run down — other strikers, or to go strike, or to chase the ball down and score, it was kind of a utilization of the pace I saw in middle school."

Misener-Daley was encouraged to join the track team for fun, but after competing at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) in 2016, Misener-Daley got serious about sprinting.

"When I had won the 100 metres and 200 metres, I actually never went to a soccer practice after that," said Misener-Daley. 

A few years later, he competed at the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships finals, a milestone that would solidify the Canadian's Olympic dreams. Then, just two years ago, the Toronto-born sprinter set the national record for the Canadian under 20 400 metre, only to break his own record the following year. 

Not long after, Misener-Daley started gaining attention from colleges across North America.

"I was getting calls from across the continent, just all these schools that had heard about what I had done and heard about my time," he said. "They wanted to give me offers or send me on a visit there, and so it got very, very hectic."

After some consideration, and a trip to Los Angeles, Misener-Daley decided to take his talents to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He would take a spot as a sprinter on the Division 1 school's track team, while majoring in economics.

"[I] kind of fell in love with the school on the spot. So it was a no brainer for me to sign here."

First year interrupted

Misener-Daley considered his first year at UCLA to be "perfect," but that all changed when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. He left UCLA in March 2020, and didn't return until the following January. Like other athletes, his hopes of competing in his first year were lost.

The reminder that it wasn't only him facing a tough situation was enough to bring Misener-Daley some comfort through it all, however.

"It took me a second to relax a little bit and realize that, you know, it's not just me who's not able to compete. Everyone wasn't able to compete," he said.

That mindset also made it easier to accept the rescheduling of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which he is actively training to qualify for. Still, when news of the delay came, Misener-Daley welcomed it.

"I was kind of ready to allow my body to have those couple of months of rest that it probably deserved," he said.

But now, more than a year since Misener-Daley packed up his life at UCLA, the sprinter is back and training, with his sights on the Games slated to begin in July. With officials already announcing that no spectators will be in attendance for any of the events, it's expected they will look different this year.

"Already it's kind of a big change to what it usually is, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to have my goal set on that," said Misener-Daley.

He noted that training while wearing a mask has been a struggle, but he said if anything, the pandemic has motivated him to make his Olympic dreams a reality.

"I think that the pandemic kind of showed who is dedicated to the sport and who wasn't," he said.

"To come back after such a rough year, and not having a season and not competing, it's just kind of giving me more of a motivation ... to try to get back to how I used to be competing and to represent Canada."

Written by Hannah Theodore. Interview produced by Laurie Allan.

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