Nobody expected Alyx Treasure to qualify for the Olympic high jump final.
But the 24-year-old from Prince George did exactly that Thursday, in her very first Olympic competition, in front of tens of thousands of spectators and a TV/internet viewing audience that numbers in the billions.
Treasure cleared the bar at 1.94 metres in her third attempt in the qualifying round.
In one of the last events of the Rio Olympics, today Treasure will take on 16 other athletes who are the best in the world at what they do. Treasure qualified 14th out of 17 who advanced to the final and will jump eighth in the order today.
The other qualifiers are: Ruth Beitia, Spain; Levern Spencer (Saint Lucia); Airine Palsyte (Lithuania); Iryna Herashchenko, (Ukraine); Sofie Skoog (Sweden); Mirela Demireva (Bulgaria); Desiree Rossit (Italy); Aleesia Trost (Italy); Blanka Vlasic (Croatia); Chante Lowe (United States); Marie-Laurence Jungfleish (Germany); Kamila Licwinko (Poland); Morgan Lake (Great Britain); Inika McPherson (United States); Svetlana Radzivil (Uzbekistan); Vashti Cunningham (United States).
The high jump final will be broadcast live on CBC TV and webcast on olympics.cbc.ca.
Coverage of the finals begins today at 4:30 p.m. PT.
