Some of Callie Swan's most memorable moments as an athlete came 2 1/2 years ago when she competed in the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
For two weeks, the eyes of the country were trained on her Prince George hometown and she experienced the thrill of representing her home province racing Canada's best under-21 short track speed skaters.
Next week in Winnipeg at the Canada Summer Games, the 19-year-old Swan will put on her racing helmet again. But this time she will be there as a road cyclist and her expectations are riding high.
As good as she was on her short track blades in 12 years of competing, Swan has rapidly developed into a national-level cyclist and could emerge as a medal threat when the under-23 competition begins Tuesday with the time trial event.
Throughout Swan's skating career, cycling was an integral part of her training in the off-season on the roads and indoors during the inclement-weather months on a trainer, but she never raced on her bike until she made the move to Saanich.
"I just started two years ago and it was always a goal of mine (to make the Canada Games team) and I'm super-excited to be going to the Games again," said Swan.
"There's just something about going there with all the other sports that makes it so awesome. You just feel so proud to be representing B.C. and Prince George," she said.
"I just remember last time how important it was and how getting there was a really big deal and this time to do it in cycling. This time I'm hoping to be a bit higher in the results, maybe top-five or even on the podium. I'm definitely a lot stronger than I was two years ago."
The mild climate on Vancouver Island enabled her to ride outdoors year-round and the engine she developed on the ice in speed skating gave her the inside track for a spot on the TaG race team, a Vancouver-based cycling coaching company founded by former Olympians Lesley Tomlinson, Chrissy deVall (nee Redden) and Gina Grain. For two years, Swan has been training with coach Houshang Amiri at the Pacific Cycling Centre in Victoria.
"I used to ride with the Hillers (Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club members Lina, Nico and Lucas) but I never raced back then," said Swan. "As soon as the Games ended in 2015 I went to Victoria that summer break and raced my bike for the first time and I really liked it. I had planned to go back on the ice that fall but never went back to skating.
"Luckily enough there are some really strong guys (in Victoria) who drag us along all winter. They're super fast and I think that's what really helped me this winter. There's a good group of 10 of us here, some girls as well, and we just train together."
The big difference to Swan as a cyclist is her season never ends, as opposed to speed skating where her Blizzard club season ran from September to March.
"I ride my bike basically every day of the month, 12 months of the year," she said.
"Since moving to Victoria the training I did this season really showed. I think a lot of people were impressed and surprised. It has happened quickly and I hope it just keeps moving forward and I keep improving."
Swan's 2015 Games experience was highlighted by her fourth-place finish in the team relay. As a 16-year-old, she made the 1,500-metre B final and finished the event 11th overall.
Swan and the rest of the seven-member B.C. team leaves for Winnipeg on Saturday. The Games competition includes the 10-kilometre time trial, an 80 km road race (Thursday) and a criterium (on Friday). After that, Swan will start focusing on velodrome track racing until the season ends in September.
"My speed skating translated better to the track than road cycling, just because the track is the same, you're doing left turns," said Swan "When we're doing bunch races on the track I kind of know more what to do and how to move around just like in speed skating. I have more tactical awareness on the track."
Two events determined the B.C. cycling team for Canada Games - the B.C. road and time trial provincials in Vancouver and the Robert Cameron Law cycling series in Victoria. She is the second-ranked female member of the team.
At the national road championships in late June in Ottawa and Gatinueau, Que., which included senior national and Olympic team members, Swan placed fourth in the U-23 class in the criterium (13th overall) and was seventh (25th overall) in the road race, and 11th in the time trial. She just returned from the Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Ore., where she raced 140 km each day in the road race. In the under-25 women's class Swan placed ninth overall.
Swan has Olympic team aspirations and is aiming for a professional team sponsorship which would help pave the path to a senior national team position.
"That is the goal, to get on a pro team within the next one or two years and I'm definitely on the way there, this year was a good stepping stone," she said. "If you get on a pro team they pay for your stuff, they take you to Europe and all over the world. The Olympics are always a goal in cycling and it's kind of cool that there's this whole other level, the UCI world tour."
