Some call it a gift.
Others refer to it as natural ability.
Whatever “it” is, Tegan Wilson owns.
The Grade 11 Springbank Community High School athlete cleaned up at the June 6-7 Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA) provincial track-and-field meet in Calgary, taking gold in intermediate girl’s 100-metre sprint, 200-metre sprint and long jump.
She didn’t just win, she dominated, beating athletes from big-city schools by a half second in the sprints and taking just one attempt to claim the long-jump title by more than a half metre ahead of the silver medallist.
“It” has moved the 17-year-old track phenom to the next level, where she’ll compete at the Youth Summer Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, in August. The Calgary International Track Club member is one of seven Canadian athletes selected to attend, having competed at a qualifying event in Florida in March.
On June 11, she heard she’d made the final cut for the Youth Olympics.
“I’m still kind of in shock.” Wilson said. “I didn’t expect to get a call, at all. It was really exciting knowing I was going down to represent Team Canada.
“It’s kind of cool to be one of the few selected out of a huge group like that. I’m really excited about it.”
At the March Youth Olympics qualifying meet, Wilson earned bronze in the 100m and sixth in the 200m against top track athletes in her age group from across North America, Mexico and Caribbean Island nations.
“It was very stiff competition, so I’m very thrilled with how it all turned out in the end,” she said. “That’s what set me up for the success of making Team Canada.”
In only her second full season of track and field, the prodigious teen with the mad hops and the searing speed won high-school gold in the three events she entered at the ASAA provincial meet.
“I probably would have hoped for a faster time in my 100 and 200,” Wilson admitted. “But I was ecstatic with my results in the long jump. I haven’t jumped that far in a very long time.”
That she doesn’t practice long jump – her Calgary club team is a sprint club – makes her provincial win in the discipline that much more intriguing. It speaks volumes to her natural athletic ability.
“I love track,” she surmised. “That’s a big part of it.”
Safe to say the “it” kid in Springbank will be making tracks to the next level for some time to come.
