For some Canadian athletes, the road to the Beijing Summer Olympics is running right through Orillia.

On Tuesday, Canada’s high jump champion Nicole Forrester stopped off at Back to Function in Orillia, to work on her core stability with kinesiologist Kirsten Sample.

While in the office, the 31-year-old Aurora native also received treatment from Orillia chiropractor Dr. Larry Bell.

“I have spent many times here with Dr. Bell and last March and April, I was here quite a while having him work on me,” said Forrester, who is ranked 13th in the world in her sport.

On Aug. 6, Forrester will depart for Beijing. Bell travels to China on Aug. 10, to join the medical support team attached to the Olympic contingent from Nigeria.

“I fly into Beijing for what we call staging and our training camp is in Singapore, so that will be my time to relax and enjoy the area,” said Forrester.

Bell, who will remain in Beijing until Aug. 21, has worked extensively with amateur and professional athletes over the years.

His skills have him much in demand within the track and field community.

Forrester and Bell met four years ago.
“I was in Europe and I blew my ankle out pretty bad and, ironically, he was on the same plane flight as me coming back to Canada,” she recalled.

Rehabilitation sessions in Orillia helped strengthen the bond between the pair.  

Competing recently at the Canadian Senior Track and Field Championships in Windsor, Forrester cleared the Canadian standard height of 1.95 metres on her third and final attempt, to earn a spot on the Olympic squad.

“Now that I have qualified, all I want to do now is go and do my best,” said Forrester.
She said she doesn’t feel any added pressure, now that she will be known as an Olympian for the remainder of her life.

“If anything, the hardest pressure was just making the Canadian Olympic team. Now I can go and focus on myself. Now I don’t have anything to prove but to myself and that takes a huge load off,” said Forrester, a seven-time national champion and 2007 Pan American Games silver medalist.

Forrester’s personal outdoor best is 1.97 metres and Bell says she can easily surpass two metres.
“We’re trying to get her over that peak with two,” said Bell. “Two metres is a big obstacle, but all we have to do is get her over that mark.”

He added, “She can scissor jump 1.80 metres, which means she should be able to jump 2.10 metres. Two metres isn’t difficult for her and she has lots left. She just has go out and find it,” he said.

The triumph in Windsor erased bitter disappointments in 2000 and 2004, when Forrester just missed qualifying for the Olympic squad.

“It wasn’t a matter if I could do it, but more all the struggles I had to endure to get to that point. There were many times when I asked myself if it was worth it, and it is. That was what I was more excited about at the Canadian finals,” said Forrester.

In June, she logged a lot of travel miles, competing in numerous meets, attempting to maintain a high performance level heading toward the Games.

“I don’t compete until about the very end of the Olympics, so that’s six weeks away and it gives me a chance to get a lot of work done,” she noted.

Between now and the start of the Summer Olympics, Forrester will compete at various European meets in Belgium, Stockholm and London before heading back to Canada to hook up with the Olympic team for the trip to China.