It is hard to find words to encapsulate what would accurately describe an Olympic spirit. Driven, energetic, fiercely competitive, powerful, are a few.
A four-time Olympian defies words.
It takes a lifetime. It takes a dogged determination to never give up, no matter what. It takes coaches and teams and volunteers. It takes family and a whole community to succeed.
Jamie McCartney found all of that growing up in Smithers. His collective experiences from his hometown helped launch a 16-year career and odyssey that included a stint in pro football, which due to an injury caused him to pivot into his Olympic trek which, has been remarkable.
His formidable list of accomplishments include:
Bobsleigh Forerunner Athlete at 2010 games in Vancouver/Whistler, B.C.
Strength and conditioning coach for Men’s Canada Alpine, 2014 Olympic games
Head strength and conditioning coach and assistant technical coach for the United States Paralympic Alpine Team at the 2018 Olympics in Korea
Technical push coach and physical performance lead for Bobsleigh Canada at the 2022 Olympic Games in China where the team had two bronze medal-winning performances.
Jamie’s adventures now bring him back home to Smithers to start a new chapter in his life.
Jamie will be opening his own business called Titan Performance: Athletic Development Specialist, in the building across from Muheim Elementary School, on the corner of King Street and Third Avenue in Smithers.
“I was mentored by the best, and some of the greatest people out there,” McCartney explained. “So, I got to see what excellence was and I want to try to show kids first of all, what youth athlete development is, and how important long term athletic development is.”
He said depending on where an athlete is, he has different goals. For someone who thinks they might want to make a go of their sport, he wants to offer them support. If they want to take it to the next level he said he wants to show them “the pathway of what it actually takes all the way down to how they conduct themselves professionally and personally.”
“I want to show them how they prepare physically to demonstrate the physical testing, so they can walk into any weight room and an NCAA Div-one program and know what they’re doing, so they feel and look like they belong there.”
My goal is to take everything that I’ve learned from the top physiologists, sport scientists, performance specialists, coaches, and doctors and bring that here for our community and the kids that want to learn on that level, but then also to offer really, really good community engagement, physical fitness and wellness programs around healthy, active living with a very active community of all different sports and athletes and also people who are dealing with overuse injuries or injuries, dealing with rehabilitation.
“In the long term, I would like to have a scenario here in Smithers where we can start to draw elite level athletes up here for their training or their offseason training and offer them a small-town community where they can go golfing and fishing and hunting and enjoy a little bit of an outdoor lifestyle here. Then they can still train up here and enjoy a bit of life too.”
McCartney takes over possession of the building he and others will be working from on May 31, and all of the equipment has been ordered, with substantial community contacts already set up.
“We are hopefully opening on June 20, if everything comes together in time,” McCartney noted.
His plans include working with sporting groups around the valley, from young kids to adult athletes to school teams.
“I participated in Nancy Green programs here, played on the high school basketball, volleyball and soccer teams. I’ve played baseball to being in martial arts and junior lifeguards, and I’m hoping to help in all of those programs,” he said.
“If it had to do with athletics, I was in it. I was so fortunate my mom worked hard to provide all of these opportunities for me, and the coaches in the schools and around this valley are incredible. I’m very lucky to maintain those connections, and then come back here to help out and give back to my community.”
As for those Olympic memories. He says for the experience itself the Vancouver Olympics were fantastic, but for performance and making history, the four-man bobsleigh team he just coached to a bronze medal, and coaching Christine Debruine to winning her bronze medal on the women’s mono-bob, was a culmination of everything he’s done in his life.
The heart-stopping run the four men ran on the bobsleigh track to gain the bronze visibly plays emotions across McCartney’s face. He’s proud, he was moved, he laughs and says it was a kind of disbelief, but knows that moment is etched in history forever.
“No one can ever take that experience away, nor all it took to get there.”
“It took everything I ever went through, as an athlete, as a coach, as a human being. I committed everything I had and was, and I have no regrets.”
“Now it is time to be home, with my family, who have all sacrificed so much for me, to spend time with my wife and son and another little one on the way soon. I have been on the road long enough now, following the World Cup tours around the world, now I want to bring my experience home and give back to my community and start living life a little more relaxed.”
Jamie McCartney also has other hardware behind his name, beyond the Olympics. He has a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and a Bachelor Psychology .
deb.meissner@interior-news.com
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