The emotion hit Chris Winter before the biggest race of his life, not after it.
The North Vancouver middle-distance runner had been chasing one goal since he first donned the colours of the NorWesters Track and Field Club 20 years ago: make the Olympic Games.
“I joined the NorWesters track club when I was nine years old,” he says. “I’m 29 right now, I turn 30 next week. It’s been a long, long road. Through that time there’s been many, many days and years where I didn’t think this was going to be a possibility, but it was always a goal in the back of my mind.”
The goal was within his grasp four years ago when Winter was shooting for a spot in the London Games in steeplechase. At the 2012 Canadian Olympic trials he finished in the top three, good enough to make the team, but his time was just a few seconds over the Olympic standard, forcing him to watch the Games at home.
At the start of this racing season it appeared that he would have another dogfight on his hands. He ran under the Olympic standard last year but there were three other elite steeplechase racers who also made the standard, setting up a four-way battle for three spots on Team Canada. But then luck jumped onto Winter’s side. Elite racer Alex Genest, one of Winter’s best friends, pulled up injured in a race and it was apparent he wouldn’t be able to compete at the Olympic trials. Winter, while sad for his friend, was struck by the possibility that was presenting itself.
“It was kind of one of those nights where I could see my path to the Olympics opening up,” he says. “I’d lay awake at night staring at the roof, seeing my opportunity to become an Olympian. I had to live with that for about five weeks leading into the trials. It was nerve-wracking. You’re staring your dream down like staring down the barrel of a gun. It’s just coming at ya. I wanted to wrap myself up in a bubble and not get sick and not get injured.”
On the day of the big race, held last Saturday in Edmonton, there was more serendipity: Canadian record holder Matthew Hughes was scratched due to a mild injury, leaving only two of the big four on the starting line. As long as Winter and fellow elite racer Taylor Milne finished first and second – a likely scenario considering who was left in the field – both would lock up spots on the Olympic team.
“It seemed like the world was putting itself into position to allow me to make the team,” says Winter, adding that it all hit him in the anxious hours before the race. “I was getting messages from friends and family saying that they supported me either way, whether it went the good way or the bad way. There was a lot of emotion for sure.”
Finally the gun went off on the last race of the night. Winter was in the pack for much of the way but pulled into second behind Milne with 400 metres to go and the two raced together onto the Olympic team. At age 29, Winter had achieved his lifelong goal.
“I got that moment of coming down the home stretch with 50 metres to go just knowing that I’d achieved this thing that I’d been wanting for so long. That was a pretty incredible moment,” he says. “(Taylor) looked back with about 20 metres to go and saw that I was going to be second behind him. We had a pretty special moment as teammates and friends both making the team together. … It’s a weird thing to finally realize something that you’ve been going for for so long. There’s a bit of shock, there’s obviously elation and happiness.”
By Monday morning Winter was outfitted in his Olympic gear and on stage for the official announcement introducing what many are calling the best Canadian track and field team ever assembled for an Olympic Games.
The celebration was slightly muted for Winter, however, because his wife Rachel Cliff wasn’t up on stage with him. Also an elite middle-distance runner, Cliff ran under the Olympic standard in the 5,000 metres just a couple of weeks ago and then finished fourth at the Canadian trials, a performance that didn’t automatically qualify her for the Games but was good enough to get her on the team. Athletics Canada, however, chose not to select. Early Monday morning Winter got his email confirming his spot on the team. Two hours later Cliff got her own note, with much more painful news.
“That was pretty devastating to both of us,” says Winter. At the time of writing Cliff was going through an appeal process to try to reverse the decision. Winter acknowledged that athletic associations have a tough job to do when picking Olympic teams, but the decision still has the speedy couple baffled.
“If you put out a standard that’s very objective and then you meet that standard, then there’s no reason not to take this athlete,” he says. “This is not ice dance or gymnastics where there are judges. This is based on hard math.”
Winter is hoping his wife will be there with him in Rio, but whether she’s there or not will have no bearing on his own racing – he’s going to the Games with a purpose.
“All of Team Canada, our goal isn’t just to go and be tourists,” he says. “We do want to achieve some pretty big things. For me that’s making the final – that would be my A+ goal. Once you get into the final, anything can happen.”
On the verge of living his dream, Winter can’t help but think back to where it all started at the NorWesters track club under the tutelage of Frank Reynolds, a beloved coach who passed away in 2006. Reynolds always encouraged his athletes to focus on the process, not the outcome – something that Winter appreciates now more than ever.
“These big moments are so rare that you really need to enjoy the process,” he says, adding that Reynolds really must have been getting things right considering that his little running group also produced other elite racers such as 2012 Olympian Jessica Smith and Chantelle Groenewoud, who finished sixth in steeplechase at the 2016 Olympic trials.
“When you see that many really high-level athletes coming from one group you know that there was something special there,” says Winter. “It wasn’t just the water in North Van that did that – you’ve got to look to NorWesters and a guy like Frank Reynolds who really helped build that foundation.”
