The 2016 summer Olympic games are fast approaching! Hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 5th and 21st, more than 10,500 will compete for the whopping 306 sets of medals up for grabs.
To honour the Olympics’ 28 sports, iRun will be kicking off our latest campaign:
Running Beside Your Olympians!
Keep checking in with iRun and we’ll fill you in on the latest, juiciest and impressive facts about the Canadian athletes that will be proudly representing Canada this summer. Spoiler: some of these athletes include Krista DuChene, Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis!
With the Olympic Games around the corner, Team Canada recently released a commercial to show they have ice in their veins. The stake are high and Canada and is ready – let’s celebrate and honour that!
Let’s kick it off right here, right now!
NUMBER ONE
Krista Duchene, Marathon Distance
Krista Duchene, mother of three from Brantford, Ontario outran Athletic Canada’s Olympic standard qualifying time of two hours, 29 minutes and 50 seconds in April 2015, at the Rotterdam marathon in a time of 2:29:30. After facing difficulties with the “competitive readiness,” which is easier said than done, Duchene proved that she was physically fit to compete at the Olympic games. Duchene is ready for the challenge and highly anticipated to put on an impressive display of athleticism in Rio.
Photo Credit: Saucony Canada
Some facts to know about Krista:
- Krista has become known as the “marathon mom” across the country for her awe-inspiring ability to juggle motherhood and her career as a professional runner.
- At the Montreal half-marathon in 2014, Krista completed the race with a broken leg!
- Krista’s half-marathon record time stands at 1:10:52 and full marathon at 2:28:31
- She’s the second fastest Canadian female marathoner of all-time
- Sometimes, to augment her busy schedule, she does speed work around the playground of her daughter’s day care
- She’s a seriously talented hockey player
- A nutritionist, she eats wisely; however, she will spoil herself post-race with chocolate
- She credits her faith with maintaining a positive outlook
- She’s seen as an inspiration to the younger women in Canadian distance running, especially Rachel Hannah, who helped her off the course in 2014, Montreal
- Sometimes, when she can’t race, she’ll act as an announcer for the races, as she’s done several times at the Calgary Marathon
- She’s on the cover of the next issue of iRun magazine and we’ll be launching a contest with her in which readers can win pairs of her autographed shoes!
Go Krista! Everyone in the iRun community – and country for that matter – will be cheering you on come August!
Check in often to see what other fun facts about your Canadian athletes we have in store for you.
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