Every once-in-a-while an athlete comes along who really
makes you appreciate the awesome power of sport.
The other day I was down at the Laurentian track kicking over
rocks, looking for something different to write about.
I found my gem in the form of 16-year old Caroline Ehrhardt, a
jumping specialist who has wings for arms and can, it seems,
literally fly through the air.
The Espanola athlete travels to Sudbury with her parents at
least twice-a-week to train with the athletes and coaches at
Track North.
This kid made her presence known at the recent OFSAA high
school championships when she won two gold medals in the junior
girls' division for the triple jump and the long jump.
Ehrhardt actually set an OFSAA record in the triple jump with a
canyon-clearing leap of 12.04-metres.
Because of her sensational success at track events this season,
Ehrhardt is now ranked third in the country for the triple jump
- for any female involved in competitive track and field. At
the junior level, she is ranked No.1.
Ehrhardt will head to Windsor later this week to compete at the
Olympic Trials / Canadian national track and field
championships in the triple and long jump.
There is a good chance, if she has some incredible jumps,
Ehrhardt could be competing in Beijing, China at the 2008
Olympic Summer Games.
This wild ride almost never came to be.
Last November, she pulled the spring ligament in her left foot
in a cross-country race. The pain was intense and forced her
out of training and competing - but not completely.
She took her training into a pool for over two months. By the
middle of February, Ehrhardt was worried because her foot was
still making her feel as if she was walking on shards of broken
glass.
Yet, interestingly enough, at one of her first meets of the
season - the York Indoor Championships - Ehrhardt found she was
jumping further than ever before.
She credits the phenomenon to the pool training she undertook
while recovering from her injury.
Through conversation with Ehrhardt, I found out something neat,
especially given the fact we live in Northern Ontario.
Backyard hockey rinks common in the landscape of Greater
Sudbury and the north. Every winter, hundreds of dads and moms
build backyard rinks for their kids to have fun and hone their
games.
Well, Ehrhardt's dad built her a backyard jumping pit, allowing
her to spend countless hours ripping down the runway and
hurling herself into the sky with pure exhilaration anytime she
felt like it.
Needless to say, it's all paying off for her now big time.
Ehrhardt will use the Olympic trials as a good learning
experience. She wants to set a personal best, but she could not
be satisfied with doing just that. She wants to be in the
finals, lining up against the best athletes in the country and
going for gold and a spot in Beijing.
Keep your eyes glued for next Tuesday's In the Zone feature in
Northern Life as it will focus on Ehrhardt and all her trials
and tribulations to get to this point in her career so early
on.
Scott Haddow is Northern Life's sports editor.
