HIGH ACHIEVERS: Rideau Canoe Club’s Ruby Muhl earns RBC Training Ground Olympian status

By Martin Cleary

The hallowed term Olympic is becoming a regular feature on the resume of high-performance sprint canoeist Ruby Muhl.

And there could be another addition involving the five-ringed classification in the future.

For the past three years, Muhl, 17, has represented Canada extremely well at the Olympic Hopes Regatta, winning six gold medals and nine medals overall in various age groups at the European-based competition.

One of her long-term goals is to qualify for the Canadian team for the Summer Olympic Games, possibly Los Angeles in 2028 or Brisbane in 2032.

That distant objective became one step closer to reality earlier this month, when Muhl was named an RBC Training Ground Olympian.

Muhl and Julia Price, who are long-time women’s sprint canoeists with the Rideau Canoe Club, qualified for a second round of testing at the RBC Training Ground national finals in Toronto as part of a group of 100 athletes aged 14 to 25.

Muhl was the only Ottawa athlete named to the Top 30 athletes, who were awarded $7,500 in funding and will train at the national level on an accelerated path to the Olympic Games. Her funding, to be administered by Canoe Kayak Canada, will be used for coaching, transportation, travel, equipment and nutrition.

“I was very pleased,” Muhl said in a phone interview about being named an RBC Training Ground Olympian. “After so many years, it’s nice to secure some help, after paying for everything out of our pockets.

“For me, it’s a good opportunity to get out in the world and be noticed and to try different paths.”

Muhl was informed she had become an RBC Training Ground Olympian by a phone call, when she was in the hallway at John McCrae Secondary School. A Grade 12 student, Muhl is part of the school’s High-Performance Athletics program, which allows her a schedule to better balance her academic and athletic workloads.

Early last year, more than 2,200 athletes across Canada participated in the RBC Training Ground’s initial test day, which has been an annual cross-country talent search since 2016 in partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Sport Institutes. More than 14,000 athletes have been tested in the past eight years and 13 have already competed in two Olympic Games and earned seven medals.

The athletes, who come from a wide range of sports and are studied by technical officials from 15 national sport governing bodies, perform core speed, strength, power and endurance tests and are ranked by their discipline scores.

During her first round of testing, Muhl, like the other athletes, was recruited by national-level scouts. Muhl was approached by technical officials in rugby, a sport she has played in the past, and triathlon.

But over the past three years, she has developed into one of the country’s top age-group canoeists, whether in a solo boat or with a crew.

The 2023 competitive season was exceptional for Muhl at the international level. At her second world junior championships, she was a gold medallist in the women’s C4 500-metre final and earned bronze in the mixed 5,000-metre relay in Auronzo, Italy.

She excelled during her third and final trip to the Olympic Hopes Regatta, winning five gold medals in the women’s U17 class – C1 200, 500 and 1,000 metres and C4 200 and 500 metres. During her three career Olympic Hopes Regattas, she won nine medals, including her first gold in 2022 in the U16 200 metres.

“She shows a lot of potential on the water, so we were very happy to see that her results in the RBC Training Ground also confirm what we think will be a very bright future in our sport,” said Emily Mackeigan, the senior manager of high-performance operations with Canoe Kayak Canada.

Muhl was shocked by winning three individual races at the Olympic Hopes Regatta, especially the 1,000 metres.

“I underestimated my cardio and my ability in long-distance competition,” she said in an interview last September. “I really pushed myself.”

Pushing herself during testing at the RBC Training Ground national finals also played a significant role in becoming an Olympian.

“Overall, I was happy with the entire experience and it was super fun,” Muhl explained. “But I was tired. I didn’t feel I did my best and there were a lot of athletes who did better. But I tried my best. I put myself out there.”

Being a part of the national finals with canoe teammate Price, Muhl felt it doubled her enjoyment of the opportunity.

“It was so fun. If I did it alone, it would have only been half the experience,” Muhl added. “Being together made every experience so much fun as we both would go through the same tests.”

Muhl is focusing her training this winter on weightlifting and gym workouts to develop her overall strength. In March, she’ll travel to Florida for a five-week training session to prepare for the Canadian national team trials.

Her goal for the 2024 season is to make the Canadian team for her third and final world junior championships July 17-21 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Muhl would like to race the two Olympic-distance races over 200 and 500 metres.