Obstacles & Opportunities

Tandem cycling duo Lowell Taylor & Ed Veal are here for our Father’s Day episode! You may recognize Lowell as, well, the co-host of this podcast. ;)  Ed is his tandem cycling pilot… that means he rides on the front of the bike.  As the blind athlete of the operation, Lowell is the stoker who rides on the back. They are fresh off of representing Canada at Road World Championships in Portugal, AND they’re two of the most amazing dads!

Ed started cycling later in life, and loves the thrill of racing. He has competed as an able-bodied athlete as well as a pilot for blind cyclists, and he’s got the medals and titles to prove it! Highlights include: World Hour Record Holder for his age group, National Hour Record, World Cup gold, and Pan-Am Bronze (2015) on the National Team Pursuit squad.  In 2019, he broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest distance cycled in a 24-hour period for a virtual event! Ed is a cycling coach and lives in Hamilton, Ontario with his partner, Amanda. He has a 17yr old son named Evan.

Lowell—a registered psychologist and the father of our beautiful boys (ages 8 & 9)—is legally blind as the result of a degenerative genetic eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa. He basically has pinhole tunnel vision now, and is completely blind in low light. He also discovered sport—and specifically cycling—later in life, and believes that sport saved his life. He became involved with Cycling Canada in 2015, and has earned medals from both national and international competitions since. Highlights include earning two silver medals at the 2019 Para Pan Am Games in Peru and becoming the National Time Trial Champion in June 2019. In 2016, Lowell was the first blind contestant to be cast in the history of the Amazing Race Franchise. He competed with ME on season 4 of Amazing Race Canada. No spoilers here… you can go watch for yourself! haha

Lowell & Ed started cycling together in late 2019. They live across the country from one another, so training camps and team projects are how they get their time in together. Most cycling endeavors were cancelled because of the pandemic, but in January 2020, they broke the national record for the kilo at track world championships, and they just raced at Road World Championships in Portugal. They complement each other beautifully, and they’re only getting started!

Lowell & Ed share their individual stories, how they each got into cycling, and how their partnership on the tandem is so magical. They also detail their experience in Portugal, the intricacies of riding a tandem, and where they’re headed next! Ed’s partner Amanda—who is a teacher, photographer, artist, killer cyclist, and overall incredible human—has become a wonderful friend, so it was only natural that she join the conversation too. Enjoy!

Ed’s coaching website: http://www.realdealracing.ca/

Ed’s Instagram/Twitter: @realdealveal

Lowell (& Julie’s) Instagram/Twitter: @JulieLowellCAN

Amanda’s photography Insta: @amandasarahcherish

Payden Vair is a Canadian sitting volleyball player headed for the Tokyo2020ne Paralympic Games! Payden’s right leg was amputated below the knee following a mowing accident in 2018. Before her accident, she was a starter for the Kodiaks— the Lethbridge College soccer team. Since her accident, she has joined the Canadian sitting volleyball team and even competed at the 2019 Para Pan Am Games in Peru where she helped Canada bring home the bronze! 

Payden’s accident and life as a para-athlete is fresh, and we’re along for the journey! Her tale is full of twists and turns, and she takes us through it all. Disclaimer—if you are easily queasy with talk of accidents and medical procedures, you may want to familiarize yourself with the skip button and use accordingly. We hope you can tough it out, though… Payden truly does have a remarkable story, and her strength and resilience is inspiring.

Find her on Instagram at @paydenvair :)

Today we have TWO special guests—Chandra Crawford & Gaby Estrada—who are both involved in the wonderful organization that is Fast & Female! Fast & Female is a Canadian charity on a mission to keep self-identified girls aged 8-14 healthy and active in sports. Fast and Female believes in the power of positive sport experiences and role models to give girls leadership, teamwork and resiliency skills.

Chandra Crawford—an Olympic Gold Medalist and 3x Olympian in Cross Country Skiing—founded Fast & Female in 2005… BEFORE she qualified for her first Olympics. She has an MBA from the University of Calgary, and lives in Calgary with her husband, Jared, their three (soon to be FOUR) kids under the age of six, and their golden retriever Stella.

Gabriela (Gaby) Estrada is the Program Director for Fast & Female and soccer coach. She is the proud daughter of immigrant parents from Guatemala, and took a shining to soccer at a young age. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Science at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education. Her research focuses on the intersections of race, gender and age, looking at the movement-based experiences of racialized women in Scarborough, ON.

In this conversation, we get to hear Chandra & Gaby’s stories as well as all things Fast & Female: its conception, mission, and the impact it has on girls and women across North America. I (Julie) am a REAL (Relatable, Empowered, Active Leader) Role Model for Fast & Female, and I even wore my special F&F shirt and earrings for our chat. ;) We learned so much during this conversation with these two inspiring women… we hope you do too!

Follow their social media @fastandfemale and sign up for their newsletter or apply to be a REAL Role Model at www.fastandfemale.com!

Maya Jonas is a para runner AND skier... and she's also hilarious! Like Lowell, she has Retinitis Pigmentosa. She was diagnosed at age 24 and was completely blind by 40. It was in her late 40s that she developed a love for sport and became an avid runner. After completing multiple marathons, she set her sights on Nordic skiing in her fifties. She has competed at the Ski World Cup, and was the oldest woman to do so!

Don’t even THINK about telling Maya that she is too old or blind for anything… because she’ll prove you wrong and do it! And she might even kick your butt in the process. ;)

She’s been through it all. She lost her husband to Parkinson’s, she battled breast cancer, and she was running the Boston Marathon at the time of the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013. 

Maya served as inspiration on Season two of AMI's Mind Set Go- the documentary series that we're also proud to be a part of. She's also an ambassador for Cycle for Sight, and would be thrilled if you went to cycleforsight.ca and supported in any way you could. 

Maya is full of stories and wisdom. Our conversation with her went in all sorts of directions, and she surprised us at every turn. Enjoy!

Catharine Pendrel is an Olympic cyclist. She’s a new mom and also happens to HAVE an incredible mom… very appropriate for this Mother’s Day episode!

Throughout her 14-year cycling career, Catharine has won countless World Championships and National titles. She’s a three-time Olympian who has a bronze medal from the 2016 Rio Olympics, a gold medal from the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and gold & silver medals from the 2007 & 2015 Pan Am Games!

Catharine now trains in Kamloops, BC where she lives with her husband, Keith, and their beautiful baby Dara. She has raced professionally for the Clif Pro Team (formerly Luna) since 2008, and is actively promoting sport and providing cycling opportunities for the next generation.

Catharine has done so much for women in sport. We loved hearing about how she got into cycling, becoming a new mom WHILE being a high performance professional athlete, and how she learned that being her authentic self is the most important part of competition for her.

During this conversation, we talk about Catharine’s road to Tokyo 2020ne. As this episode airs, she is currently IN Europe to clinch her spot on the Olympic team. Go Catharine! We’re cheering you on from afar!

http://www.cpendrel.com/

Episode art photo from the 2016 Rio Olympics (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) found at:

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/mountain-bike-world-cup-1.4237585

David Willsie is a Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby player and coach! He became a quadriplegic after he was injured during a hockey game in 1995. Shortly after his injury, he was introduced to wheelchair rugby (aka MURDERBALL), and made the national team in 1998.

David participated in five Paralympic games throughout his 19-year career on the national team. In that time, he was featured in the 2005 documentary Murderball, and he appeared on the Rick Mercer Report. He has since participated in an episode of AMI’s documentary series Mind Set Go (season 2), and he is currently the assistant coach of the Canadian Wheelchair Rugby National Team.

David lives in Dorchester, Ontario and works for Lind Lumber which he runs with his brothers.

It was fascinating learning the history of wheelchair rugby, David’s experience with the national team, and the value of sport throughout his life. We hope you enjoy our conversation!

Sarah Wells is an Olympic hurdler, Amazing Race Canada Sister, and Founder of the Believe Initiative!

Sarah is very familiar with obstacles—literally and figuratively—and she has become an expert at getting over them. As a hurdler, she competed at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and won the silver medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games. Her athletic career didn’t play out quite as she expected after that, and she used her story to help over 12,000 youth in North America understand the importance of being resilient and the power of being yourself.

Sarah has worked with organizations such as Salesforce, Deloitte, Proctor and gamble, Kraft-Heinz, Bell Media, and RBC on how to build more resilient teams.

Sarah is a passionate and inspiring person, and—lucky for us—an excellent story teller. In this conversation, we talk about her super cool siblings, the people that have shaped her life, her athletic highs and lows, the Believe Initiative, and of course... the Amazing Race Canada. Time flew with this one, and we know you’ll enjoy her stories as much as we did!

https://www.believeinitiative.com/

https://sarahwells.ca/

Tristen Chernove is a Paralympic cycling champion who is set to compete at the Tokyo 2020ne Games! In 2009, he was diagnosed with Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) disease which is a degenerative disease of the peripheral nervous system. In an effort to counteract the impacts of the disease, Tristen switched from competitive paddling to cycling. He is now a 13x World Champion, plus he earned a full set of medals from the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games—gold, silver, and bronze! In 2017, Tristen won every World Championship that exists for track and road Paracycling—something that had never been done before. He received ‘The People’s Choice Award’ Canadian Cyclist of the year for three consecutive years (2016-2017-2018) and has been nominated as Sport BC Athlete of the year for the past three years.

Through Tristen’s role on Cycling Canada Athlete’s Council, he was instrumental in implementing a cyclist to cyclist mentor program to bring cyclists together virtually throughout the pandemic. In July 2020, Tristen broke the BC Epic 1000 record by eight hours, and raised $40,000 for the Paralympic Foundation of Canada in the process!

Tristen lives in Cranbrook, BC, with his wife and two daughters. He is the President and CEO of Elevate Airports, and even received Cranbrook’s Business Person of the Year award from the Chamber of Commerce.

As you will learn through our conversation, Tristen never does anything halfway. He is filled with passion and drive, and hopes that his legacy can be a vehicle for positive change towards a future full of opportunity, equality, accessibility and diversity in sport.

Natalie Spooner—our Amazing Race Canada sister and Canadian Olympic Hockey champion!

Natalie started playing organized hockey at the age of four, and after high school was offered a scholarship to attend The Ohio State University. She played for the Buckeyes for four seasons, and holds the all-time goal-scoring record for the school!

In 2012, Natalie was drafted to play for the CWHL’s Toronto Furies before centralizing in Calgary for a chance to earn a spot on the roster for the 2014 Olympic Team… which she did! And the Canadian women’s hockey team won GOLD in Sochi! In 2018, Natalie helped Canada bring home the silver from Pyeongchang, and she hopes to represent Canada again at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games!

In 2014, Natalie—along with teammate & friend, Meaghan Mikkelson—competed on season two of the Amazing Race Canada. As if Canada didn’t love these two enough already… their domination of season two solidified them in our hearts!

Also in 2014, Natalie became the first woman in hockey history to claim the gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games and the Clarkson Cup in the same year.

One reality show wasn’t enough for this incredible woman! In 2019, she swapped the hockey skates for figure skates, and competed with figure skater Andrew Poje on season 5 of Battle of the Blades! They earned themselves a second place finish, and very impressively—Natalie lifted ANDREW up during one of their routines. In 2020, Natalie returned to the show as a judge.

One of the things we admire most about Natalie is what she has done for girls & women in sport. She is a Fast & Female REAL Role Model, and has a high performance hockey academy for girls. 

Natalie is beautiful inside and out, and Adidas obviously picked up on that as they recently scooped her up as an athlete for Team Adidas!

This conversation was fun and light-hearted, and we covered a lot of ground… including our mutual love of Celine Dion. We know you’ll love Natalie as much as we do… enjoy!

https://www.nataliespooner.com/

Today—April 7th—is Green Shirt Day, and we had the pleasure of chatting with Logan Boulet’s family. Logan is the inspiration behind Green Shirt Day and the Logan Boulet Effect. On April 6, 2018, the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus was involved in a crash that shattered the hearts of Canadians. 16 of the 29 passengers on the Humboldt team bus lost their lives in the crash, and Logan was one of them. He succumbed to his injuries on April 7th, 2018. Following his passing, his organs saved or enhanced the lives of six Canadians. This sparked organ donation across Canada which became known as the Logan Boulet Effect. Now April 7th is known as Green Shirt Day—a day to bring awareness to organ donation, and the impact that Logan’s decision to donate his organs had on a nation. 

We get to know to Logan’s parents, Toby & Bernie, and his sister, Mariko. They share their own athletic histories, their favourite memories of Logan, and Logan’s unplanned legacy. The Boulets are the most beautiful and authentic family, and we hope you get as much out of our conversation as we did!

Visit https://greenshirtday.ca/ to register for organ donation, and let your loved ones know about your decision!