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By Keiran Gorsky
The 2026 Canadian Orienteering Championships in Halifax were teeming with Smiths. Of the 14 competing in all age brackets, five were members of one close-knit Orienteering Ottawa (OO) family. All three Smith siblings left town with a medal, but 16-year-old Holly Smith claimed three to cap off the summer of her orienteering life.
Holly Smith finished first in the long event snaking through Sandy Lake Park, three minutes ahead of Calgary’s Emilia Smith in the female age 17-18 category. She finished second in middle, behind Sofia Smith of Parry Sound, and second in the sprint event through the city proper.
“I was able to keep my focus on my map and still focus on my navigation while going faster, which is always the goal,” Holly Smith said of her finish in long.
It was her older brother Hayden who first showed a passion for the sport when the Smiths and other families were invited to an OO camp roughly nine years ago. At the time, Holly had her efforts focused on ringette and hockey.
Things changed over the years as Holly placed more and more value in her independence. Orienteering practice was equally strenuous, but much more accommodating of her schedule. Also enticing was the prospect of entering major competitions in the not-too-distant future.
She was one of the top competitors in her age group from the outset. Initially relying on sheer pace to race from control to control, her ability to read maps and formulate routes rapidly improved.
“You know, I used to be faster when I was younger,” she remembered. “Now I’d say that navigation is more my strong suit.”
After watching her older brother Hayden compete at last year’s Junior World Orienteering Championships in Trentino, Italy, she made a personal pledge to join him the following summer.
“That’s when I decided I’m applying for the team next year,” Holly recounted. “That’s when I really started training hard.”
They spent the months leading up to the competition training side by side. Hayden would travel around the area, scrounging up local maps and even designing his own courses for Holly and her friends to traverse. They also made lengthy road trips to Parry Sound and Kingston for local events. Her older brother was always happy to take her there, no matter where ‘there’ was.
“You have to find a map somehow. I’m not sure how he does it, so I’ll probably have to learn from him,” she laughed. “It doesn’t matter if it’s like an hour drive. He’d drive us, and we’d go out and do some training together.”
Holly was one of five Ottawa orienteers at this year’s edition of Junior Championships in Karlskrona, Sweden, alongside Hayden, Dylan Revells, her close friend Kaylee Mahoney and Kaylee’s brother Daniel.
Read More: Orienteering family’s eldest sibling Dylan Revells sweeps 2025 Canadian Championships U18 races
Before races, Holly’s older brother habitually checked in on her and ensured she had everything she needed. Though the going was predictably tough against seasoned European orienteers as she finished 117th of 155, Holly was taken by the devotion they showed for the sport, in stark contrast to the relative anonymity of orienteering back home.
The journey through the Swedish archipelago was a great test of her mental fortitude. A particular challenge was navigating the region’s maddeningly flat terrain. Holly found herself examining and reexamining every minute detail on the map.
“Contours and hills are some of the biggest things that I use to navigate and orient myself,” the Sir Robert Borden High School student explained. “But when there’s none of those, you’re just looking around and you’re like, ‘OK, there’s a rock over there, but which one of the 50 rocks is it?’”
The experience all but confirmed one of Holly’s pre-existing theories on practicing under simulated strain. In a Q&A with Orienteering Canada, she outlined her unique approach to training.
“The most overlooked element (of orienteering) is practicing navigation while tired. A lot of people work on fitness or do map exercises but not many combine the two. In races, you’re almost always making decisions while your heart rate is high, so training your brain to stay calm and accurate when you’re tired makes a huge difference,” she indicated.
For that reason, Holly tries to keep a consistent, brisk pace, even in practice. She felt her experience in Sweden, where she ran nearly 10 kilometres in the long event, bolstered both her physical and mental stamina and prepared her well for Halifax.
She participated in a training camp and a few short ‘Fishbones’ races at the Canadian Orienteering Festival in Hillsborough, NB before taking on the main event.
Studying old maps and course notes, a good orienteer knows to plan around the constants – the hills and contours as opposed to potentially diseased plant life. The course through Sandy Lake Park was a welcome return to the rolling terrain to which she was accustomed.
After a close race through the city where Holly competed in a higher age category, she headed out and into the forest. She hit her first control “bang on” but felt her competitors in hot pursuit behind her, prompting her to pick up the pace.
Though she made a handful of mistakes as she tired in the second half, Holly never gave up her lead. The final control accounted for more than a quarter of the four-kilometre race, but Holly made it to the finish with a full three minutes to spare.
“I felt really good about my race… it’s always really nice when that pays off, and you see that in the results,” she said.
Junior World Championships might stand as the grander competition on paper, but Holly appreciated the opportunity to reunite with her friends in Nova Scotia. Orienteering might remain a niche endeavour on home soil, but at least in Holly’s age group, the number of competitors (and surname sharers) has been increasing steadily. For Holly, who also coaches with OO’s youth program, the future looks bright.
“There’s definitely a few more girls, so that makes me feel like it’s growing,” she indicated.
“I love just sharing my love for the sport and seeing how there’s some kids that can take to it so quickly, whereas others need a little bit of extra help. But then once it clicks, it’s really nice to see.”
Holly Smith’s performance was among numerous standout results for Orienteering Ottawa athletes.
Daniel Mahoney and Dylan Revells were 1-2 in the men’s age 18-19 sprint event, while Mahoney also won the long-distance competition and was third the middle.
Eric Kemp retuned to the nationals and won the senior men’s long to go alongside second place results in the sprint and middle, which was won by clubmate Robert Graham. Bence Cormier and Grayson Smith dominated the men’s 17-18 sprint and 15-16 long events respectively.
Also topping their categories were Lucy Revells, Krisztina Cormier, James Connell, Paul Lefebvre, Gord Hunter, Lily Powell, Krisztina Cormier, Anne Teutsch, Gloria Rankin, Bill Anderson, Tracy Smith, Roy Boerschke, Robert Graham, Henry Powell, Sherlock Connell, Woodrow Connell, Gord Hunter and Roy Boerschke, while podium performances went to Kaylee Mahoney, Saskia Edmunds-Boerschke, Cherie Revells, Andrew Cornett, Amanda Edmunds, Ewan Edmunds-Boerschke, William Mahoney, Paul Lefebvre and Frédéric Bédard.