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By Daniel Prinn
There’s been a change of travel plans for Sam Zakutney, and it’s landed the 17-year-old Ottawa native on the doorstep to the Olympics.
Zakutney had originally been scheduled to head west to Washington state for this month’s Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships, but instead he’s headed to Rio de Janeiro to compete for an Olympic berth April 16-22 alongside Canada’s injury-riddled men’s artistic gymnastics team.
The news came to the Franco-Cité high school senior midway through the March 17-20 University of Calgary International Cup. During practice in Calgary, one national team athlete wiped out on rings, landed on his face and “went into a scorpion,” recounts Zakutney, who was told at that point to keep an open mind about heading to Rio.
The day after another gymnast tore his ACL knee ligament, the team director informed Zakutney he’d be joining the team for the last-chance qualifier.
“I was sure as hell happy when he admitted it,” laughs Zakutney, who won the all-around title in the senior national competition and also earned a high bar bronze medal in the international portion of the Calgary event featuring athletes from Canada, USA and China.
Having a shot at Rio 2016 comes as a fairly big surprise to the junior-aged athlete who’d been focused on making it to the 2020 Olympics.
“Back in 2013, all I could think about was competing in Rio – that was really my dream at the time,” recalls Zakutney, explaining that he started looking at it a little more realistically as the date drew closer. “Now I can’t believe I ever doubted myself. It’s just a real confidence boost.
“Now, I rarely want to leave the gym. Every time I do something wrong, I want to repeat it. And if I wanted to stay an hour later, I would because I know I’d be working on something amazing.”
Underdog Canada needs a top-four finish (out of eight teams) at the event to send a full team to the Olympics. Otherwise, just two individuals will go, in which case Zakutney suggests his chances at competing in the 2016 Games would be “pretty much gone” since he assumes specialists who can contend for a medal will be sent.
There remains a chance that Zakutney will only be an alternate at the qualifier since the Montreal gymnast who crashed and pulled muscles in his neck is cleared to train and will join the team. The team director will decide which six of seven athletes will compete once in Rio.
Regardless, Zakutney is looking forward to the experience and is excited to be there with many of the biggest names in gymnastics.
“When you watch these guys on the Internet doing these amazing tricks you picture them as gods. They’re so majestic and amazing when you look at them,” he underlines. “Then one day you’re going to look at them in person and you’ll realize they’re not that much taller than you or more built than you, then you just look at them as people. That gives you the indication that someday maybe people will look at you that way, too.”
Ottawa gymnasts power Ontario
The enormous Calgary meet featured competition in many categories, with several local gymnasts helping Team Ontario to the top of the standings in their categories.
Ottawa Gymnastics Centre athletes Philopateer Faltas (Provincial Level 4, under-13) and James Doucette (P3, 13+) both finished 2nd all-around. Faltas won floor gold and silver for rings, vault and parallel bars, while Doucette earned pommel horse and rings gold, and vault silver.
Nicholas Dugan and Tyson Morton from Tumblers Gymnastics Centre also finished in the same position in their respective categories, placing 7th in National Open and P3 13-. Dugan won high bar silver and Morton took floor bronze and vault silver.
Their club will host its annual Tumblers Classic invitational meet from Apr. 15-17, while the Ontario Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships go Apr. 7-10 in Mississauga.