By Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
While the Paris Olympics were going on across the ocean, Ottawa’s Quinn Fitzgerald was getting his own first taste of a multi-sport games as he competed among 2,500 athletes aged 12-18 across 18 sports at the Ontario Summer Games in London.
And still very young in his pursuit of competitive triathlon, the 16-year-old Bytown Storm athlete brought home a bronze medal in the men’s sprint event in St. Marys, ON.
“It was definitely my goal to go in and get a medal,” Fitzgerald signals. “But when it happened, it was pretty cool, especially with how little training I’ve done.”
Fitzgerald has been swimming competitively since he was six years old, but switched his attention to triathlon after his most recent season.
“I was kind of getting bored of swimming because it was just like the same thing over and over again, so I was looking for something different,” explains Fitzgerald, who has competed at the provincial level for the Nepean-Kanata Barracudas.
He’d always done triathlons on the side for fun, but recently started to work towards the swim, bike and run sport more competitively.
“I think one of the things he was looking for was just more variety,” echoes Bytown Storm coach Greg Kealey, “being in the pool 20 hours a week and liking to do that much work, but maybe looking for some variety.”
Fitzgerald started training with Kealey last summer but “wasn’t really ready to leave swimming yet,” he recalls. After swimming provincials this spring, Fitzgerald jumped into training for triathlon full time.
“I’d be running, biking, and still swimming, so it was definitely a big switch, but I’m enjoying it,” Fitzgerald notes.
He’s also quickly found success in his pursuit. The runner-up in the 2023 Ontario championships under-15 male class earned the chance to compete at the Aug. 1-3 Ontario Summer Games alongside his Storm teammate Jamie Charlebois.
“We were rooming together in our dorm, so that was pretty cool, mainly because I didn’t really know anyone else,” Fitzgerald indicates. “It was definitely fun seeing another teammate competing there.”
Kealey says the Ontario Summer Games are “a huge development opportunity” on the pathway to national and international competition in the future.
“Both on a performance level, but also it really gives a good indication of how competitive the sport is and can be,” indicates Kealey, who also serves as Triathlon Ontario’s provincial development coach.
The Summer Games also offer a unique experience for the young athletes, who stayed in residence on the Western University campus in an athletes’ village.
“The first night we ate in the cafeteria, then we went to the opening ceremonies. It was really cool to see the flame and all the different sports walking in,” Fitzgerald highlights. “It pretty much felt like a mini-Olympics, especially at the opening ceremony, I think that really set it off.
“Seeing all the teams with their signs, and everywhere we went, athletes were wearing their team gear and athlete lanyard. That definitely made it feel like it was a big deal.”
On top of the out-of-competition festivities, the format of the triathlon event also encouraged interactions between athletes. In the mixed relay, teams were chosen at random.
“It was definitely tricky because it was hard to pick out an order. I’d never met them, so it’s kind of interesting to see who’s fast, what everyone’s weaknesses were,” outlines Fitzgerald, who came within one spot of a second podium with his fourth-place Vipers squad.
“It was cool to see where everyone was from, all the different places in Ontario. I got to see how they train and stuff, we talked about that a little bit,” he adds. “It was fun. I would definitely do it again.”
On the final day of competition came the individual event, where athletes completed a 300-metre swim, 5.5 km cycle and 1.5 run course in two separate heats, with final results determined by the combined time from both races.
In his first race, Fitzgerald came out of the water second, but got on to his bike fastest and held the lead solo throughout the cycling portion, which included a sizeable hill.
“The run is definitely one of my biggest struggles right now,” Fitzgerald indicates. “Coming from swimming, you don’t really tend to run, but I used to race biking when I was younger, so I have a little bit of biking background too.”
Fitzgerald was caught by two runners in the last leg of the race, finishing in third place in the heat. He was again strong in the second heat’s swim and cycle and a little bit weaker in the run, but again placed third in the heat out of 16 participants.
Fitzgerald’s combined time of 39:43 was just one second back of the silver medallist, and 41 seconds behind the winner. Charlebois placed eighth in his individual competition and fifth in the mixed relay.
“It’s definitely a great experience to win a medal,” Fitzgerald underlines. “Definitely next year, with training all over the winter, I’m hoping for some good results.”
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