This week Rock Climber Cat Carkner joins the show. Cat competed at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was 6th and 8th in combined format and lead lining respectively at the 2017 Youth Pan-American Championships, and has numerous provincial titles across different formats. We talked about self doubt and imposter syndrome, which is all too common young athletes. The impact of the youth Olympic Games on her life, as well as her process of visualization before a climb.

In this weeks episode I sat down with Ellen Pennock. We discussed Ellen’s journey through the sport of triathlon and life, how she managed burnout, and how Ellen is using lessons and skills learned from sport and applying them into a business career.

Katie Zaferes joins the Excellence Verse Podcast this week. She is the measure of excellence in triathlon and certainly a measure for anyone striving to be great or to find excellence. She is current world number 1 in Itu word rankings, wts series rankings, continental ranking and olympic ranking. In 56 starts she has 30 podiums and 12 wins and in 2019 won Abu Dhabi
Bermuda, Yokohama, Montreal, Grand Final Lausanne securing her title as world champion after finishing an impossibly close second the year before. Yes I somehow managed to get the arguably the most dominant triathlete over the past years and the favourite for the Tokyo olympics next year Katie Zaferes. While she has an oustanding list go achievements you wouldn’t know it when speaking to her. In the time I had talking with Katie what I saw was an incredibly kind and down to earth person. We talked about her race preparations and visualization, training group and coaching, as well as how she bounced back from some tough defeats in 2018 and come back to win the 2019 world championships.

In this weeks interview I had the opportunity to speak with Olympic Swimmer Rachel Nicol. Over the years Rachel has been a true measure of excellence for myself and any other swimmer around her. I have always appreciative of the times I got to swim with her and see how she handled herself during and before a workout. Rachel has no shortage of race results but as you will hear in the interview they are not what makes her excellent. Some of those results however, are winning three medals at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games: A gold and two Bronze. She won bronze silver at the 2015 Pan American games and qualified for the 2018 Commonwealth games being named co-captain of the team before an unfortunate shoulder injury forced he to pull out of competition. Rachel was 5th in the 100m breaststroke and medley relay at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and has competed in multiple swimming world championships. Even though she is a tremendously successful athlete Rachel is one of the kindest and most genuine people that I have ever met. No matter what the situation or time, even some very early, morning practices she always is friendly and smiling.
Rachel and I talked about her journey and how she has copped with injury, post olympic blues, nerves and more.

Joining me this week is Martin Sobey. A triathlete from Prince Edward Island. Over the last six months It has been a massive privilege and honour to not only work and train beside Martin, but also have the opportunity to talk with, and simply observe his behaviour around life and sport. He is one of, if not the most focused and driven individuals I have met. From an accomplishments standpoint Marty has had numerous podiums and top 5s at the continental cup level, he has some impressive World Cup results and was the 2019 Richmond Camtri champion. However, of all his accomplishments the one stands out the most to me was his top 10 finish at last years Canadian elite championships. While this is an impressive result on its own, what truly makes it spectacular is that Martin fractured his foot coming off the bike and yet still ran the 5 kilometres required eventually placing 6th. In this episode we talk in depth about behaviours, diet, and mental strategies and how they can be beneficial or detrimental to achieving excellence.

In the very first episode of The Excellence Verse Podcast I chat with Brock Hoel, a Canadian Junior Elite Triathlete striving for excellence. We discuss what excellence means to him and his story of finding his way in the world of elite sport.