“If you can imagine: here I am, a Black woman from Montreal visiting their reservation and proposing they participate in a triathlon. Let’s just say, at first the idea was met with a lukewarm reception, at best.”
When Montrealer Linda Féquière, a former RCMP officer and triathlete of more than 20 years, first approached members of the Lac-Simon Band Council with her school triathlon project, she spoke of her dream of one day seeing athletes from Indigenous communities on the Olympic podium.
Two years later, that dream continues to take shape for a dozen youth from the Lac-Simon Indigenous community thanks in part to RBC Training Ground.
Growing up in Montreal, Féquière wanted to be a gymnast, but quickly realized that her busy mother – juggling two jobs to provide for her family – would not be able to enroll her in organized sports. She decided to turn her efforts toward running. When she discovered swimming later in adulthood (following an injury keeping her away from logging miles) it led her to triathlon. She fell in love with the sport, but was also struck by the small number of visible minorities alongside her in competition.
This led her to approach the Lac-Simon Algonquin community with the idea of creating a Triathlon program.
“If you can imagine: here I am, a Black woman from Montreal visiting their reservation and proposing they participate in a triathlon. Let’s just say, the idea was met with a lukewarm reception, at best,” said Féquière. “But when I addressed the same group after the first edition of the Triathlon des nations and told them that while Val d’Or (the neighbouring community) might have gold, Lac-Simon had raw diamonds ready to shine in them.”
The idea resonated, and Féquière continued to develop opportunities for the youth from Lac Simon, including organizing a weekend trip to participate in RBC Training Ground. On April 23, twelve of the young athletes working with Linda participated in RBC Training Ground’s qualifying event in Montreal, testing their speed, power, strength and endurance in front of representatives from several national sport organizations, including Triathlon Canada.
“For these youth, RBC Training Ground is a tangible pathway to the Olympic dream,” offers Féquière. “But I never forget that it can become a pathway to so much more!”
The young triathletes from Lac-Simon also got to meet members of Mohawk communities from around Montreal in a “one tepee two nations” cultural gathering and take part in a behind-the-scenes visit to the labs at the Montreal Insectarium.
“RBC Training Ground believes that high performance sport should be accessible to all young athletes, and we recognize there is still work to be done in making our program more accessible to BIPOC communities.” said Shannon Cole, Vice-President, Brand Marketing, RBC. “When we heard about Féquière and what she was doing for her community, it was important to us that she knew how she could support her athletes through our local events.”
In addition to encouraging Indigenous athletes to participate at regular qualifying events, this year RBC Training Ground hosted custom testing events for North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) athletes. More than 300 took part. The efforts build upon RBC’s sponsorship of NAIG 2023, where more than 5,000 Indigenous athletes, coaches and team staff from over 756 Indigenous Nations, will gather in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) to celebrate sport and culture.
“We recognize that Indigenous athletes in Canada experience barriers to participating in sport, so we want to help make it easier for them to chase their Olympic dreams,” added Cole.