All Alyx Treasure needed was a podium finish to officially join the five-ring circus.

She did even better than that when she won the gold medal Saturday in the women’s high jump at the Canadian Olympic track and field trials in Edmonton.

That means Prince George will have at least one homegrown athlete to cheer on in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Prince George Track and Field Club member became the first athlete in the club’s history to make Canada’s Olympic team.

Although she was fitted for her Olympic team uniforms Sunday morning in Edmonton, Treasure said she wasn’t going to relax until Athletics Canada had named the team, expected to be the largest-ever Canadian contingent of track and field athletes for an Olympic competition.

Treasure, 24, cleared 1.88 metres with her first attempt to lock up her third-straight Canadian championship. She had already achieved the Olympic standard of 1.93m (six-foot-four) May 7 at the Ward Haylett Invitational meet at her home track in Manhattan, Kan.

“It was good – I thought I competed really well with the field and then I kind of dropped the ball after I won, and I was a little upset about that,” said Treasure. “I’m 99 per cent sure that I made the team but until I’m on that list it’s still waiting out. I got fitted (for clothing) and got my travel (arrangements) done but I still want to see my name on that list before I completely celebrate.”

On Saturday, Treasure entered the competition with the bar set at 1.75m. She cleared that height successfully on her first attempt, then completed first-attempt triumphs at 1.81m and 1.84m. Natasha Jackson of Calgary and Jillian Drouin of Sarnia, Ont., finished second and third respectively in the trials. Both cleared 1.81m  but failed to go beyond that mark. Neither Jackson nor Drouin achieved the Olympic standard and won’t be part of Canada’s team.
Treasure made three attempts at 1.92m but knocked the bar off each time.

“I won at (1.84) and when I went to (1.92) it definitely hit home that I won and I didn’t necessarily need this bar and I got into the wrong mindset,” she said.

The Rio Olympics run Aug. 5-21. The qualifying round for the women’s high jump in Rio is set for Thursday, Aug. 18 starting at 10 a.m. Brazil time. The finals are scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 20 at 8:30 p.m. local time. Rio is four hours ahead of the Pacific time zone. Treasure knows she will have to exceed her personal best – 1.93m – to advance to the Olympic final.

“I think I have a pretty good shot of getting into the finals. It’s kind of anybody’s game right now with high jump, there’s nobody who’s been a clear leader,” she said. “Practice has gone really well, competition is where the rust has been at with my height. My fitness is where it needs to be, so I think when I get there I’ll be able to perform.”

Treasure posted a second-place finish at the Harry Jerome International Track Classic in Burnaby, June 17. She plans to compete in an American Track league meet on July 23, where she will hook up with her coach from Kansas State, Cliff Rovelto, who will be the high jump coach for the American team at the Olympics.

Treasure knows there are risks involved with going to Rio, where there are concerns about security, pollution and the Zika virus, which is spread by mosquitoes. Six years ago, Treasure was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which causes an inflammation of the intestines. The medication she uses to treat the condition weakens her immune system and she’s not allowed to receive any active vaccinations.

“I’m at an extremely high risk of any kind of virus and it is a concern I can’t ignore but it’s the Games and you can’t miss out on that,” she said.

Treasure’s father, Steve, plans to make the trip to Brazil from Prince George but her mother Cindy is still uncertain whether she will be in the stands in Rio when her daughter jumps at the Olympics.

• Prince George’s Geoff Martinson, a 30-year-old who now lives in Vancouver, competed at the trials in the men’s 5,000m run. Due to a nagging knee injury, he hadn’t planned to attend the meet. However, he was on the track and finished in fifth place in a time of 14:10.15. Ontario’s Mohammed Ahmed crossed the line first in 14:00.93.

• One other Prince George athlete, Zach Matyas, competed at the Olympic trials, in the 800m run. Matyas ran the first heat on Friday in 1:59.79 but failed to advance to the finals.

“I got in the slow heat, unfortunately, and they take the 10 fastest times of the three heats,” said the 20-year-old Matyas, who needed a time of 1:55 to advance. “I was the fastest guy in the heat so I was trying to push the other guys to go a little quicker. The other heats get to watch the heat before them so they knew they have to go faster than us to get to the next round.”

David Gendreau-Fillion of Gatineau, Que., won the men’s 800 in 1:52.71.

Matyas, a Duchess Park secondary school graduate, attends Douglas College in New Westminster, majoring in psychology. He competes with the Langley Mustangs Track and Field Club. He plans to compete this weekend in the B.C. championships, which start Friday in Nanaimo.

• At the trials, which also served as the Canadian championships, Emma Floris of Vanderhoof was in the junior division. In the 400m race, she won her heat in a time of 57.16. In the finals, Floris ended up 19th with a clocking of 59.16.

High-jumper Alyx Treasure is making plans for Rio.
While winning the Ward Haylett Invitational meet Saturday at her home track at Manhattan, Kansas, the 23-year-old Prince George Track and Field Club member cleared the bar at 1.93 metres (six-foot-four), the Olympic standard for women.
Treasure is now qualified to compete in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this August.
“It was a good day, it was pretty smooth-sailing all the way through,” said Treasure, who was fighting off the effects of a head cold. “I’ve been noticing that the worse I feel before a meet, the better I do.”
Competing in the open category at the Haylett meet, having used up her college eligibility, Treasure jumped clear at 1.79 m, 1.84m and 1.89 m and made her second attempt at 1.93m, having never before cleared the bar at that height, even in practice. She knew she had only a narrow window of opportunity, with a July 11 deadline for Olympic qualifying rapidly approaching.
“It was so surreal when it happened,” said Treasure, a marketing/entrepreneur major at Kansas Sate University in Manhattan.
“My indoor season started early because I wanted to give myself as many chances as I could. It is hard to find (outdoor) meets in the NCAA season in May, there aren’t many meets that get put on here. I knew I wouldn’t have many opportunities, even though it’s two months before (the Canadian Olympic) trials, so I was definitely feeling the pressure.
“It helped that I know the track and the pit, which took a lot of thinking out of the jump.”
Treasure, who started high jumping when she was nine, is the only female Canadian qualified for the Olympic high jump and she becomes the first Prince George track and field athlete to make the Olympic grade.
“I’m delighted for Alyx,” said Tom Maisich, who coached her for five years at the PGTFC. “If she does qualify at 1.93 or higher and can duplicate that in the early rounds in Rio, it should put in the top 12 for the finals.”
Treasure took three attempts at 1.96 m on Kansas and was close on all three.
Had she not achieved the 1.93m standard on Saturday she would have had just one more meet, the Harry Jerome International Track Classic in Burnaby, June 17, to try to qualify before the trials in Edmonton, July 7-10. She requires a top-three finish at trials to officially punch her ticket to Rio.
“I’m not sure if it’s the top three who have the Olympic standard will go, maybe one other girl will have that, so basically I’m good,” she said. “Once you have standard in Canada, especially in the field events, you’ve kind of signed your ticket.”
“Because I was jumping at the level I was (beyond 1.80 m) I could only get into a certain amount of meets because of that, but now that I’ve made standard it opens up a whole other realm of meets and now I have options for a bunch of other meets,” said Treasure, who is looking forward to finding consistency while competing the next few months against top-ranked international high-jumpers.
“It’s a whole new ball game. Honestly, it hasn’t set in yet (that she’s qualified for the Olympics), give me a couple weeks to wrap my head around it. Once the work sets in and I have to get competitive at that higher level it will be a lot different for me. Hopefully I’ll be able to make a living at this sport.”
Sponsored by Body First, Treasure is in the process of trying to find an agent, which will help determine where she will compete next. She’s now eligible for Canadian Olympic team funding.
“It’s perfect timing because I’m just finishing school and I graduate next week (on Saturday, the day she celebrates her 24th birthday),” she said.
Treasure said she’s no longer with her steady boyfriend, who played for the Kansas State football team, and she’s enjoying her single status.
“That’s why I’m doing so well,” she laughed. “I’m married to track instead.”