After hosting the International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Cup for 7 years, the board had a little money left over. I wanted to see us do something along sport development lines, so the board looked at establishing an Edmonton triathlon academy. We went to meet with the mayor about it. He looked at our proposal and said it was great, but that we should be going bigger—it might be the time now with the bid for the 2015 Universiade Games to look towards making Edmonton a centre of excellence for summer sports.

That idea’s moving along with some representatives from the university and the city and the province. We're still forming our own triathlon academy, but it’ll be part of making Edmonton a centre for summer sports if it happens.

The academy will be a training centre for athletes and coaches. Two of Canada’s 6 Beijing Olympics triathletes came from Edmonton. In my opinion that was the result of Edmonton hosting the ITU World Cup from 2001 to 2008, and it would be too bad to lose that momentum. Carolyn Murray is from St. Albert originally, and she got involved with triathlon really because her parents were involved with me on the committee here. Paul Tichelaar was a swimmer with Keyano. And then he competed when we had the World Cup here in 2001. He was in the junior category and placed 5th.

It’s pretty exciting to think that you’ve had an impact on the outcome of sport on the other end. And I think development has to be part of any event. I mean Canada’s very good at hosting events, but it’s not that good at producing athletes. So for me, the actual sport development should almost be a requirement tied into any bid. How does the event impact the sport and development of young athletes? There should be a continuum.

Edmonton has been good to me. I never set out trying to figure out what I was going to do when I grew up and it was through volunteerism in the community that I’ve ended up traveling the world, really. It doesn’t happen just anywhere. I think Edmonton provided that opportunity. And Edmonton was so supportive as we went through our years of hosting. The relationship that we built with city staff and just in Hawrelak Park made it a really simple, easy thing to do. We had built a trust and there was an appreciation between us. I think that’s quite special.