Nick Wammes Keeps His Legs And Goals Moving Forward During Pandemic

Nick Wammes isn’t doing what he planned right now. He was set to be training with Team Canada in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics.

Despite those stalled plans, Wammes is keeping his legs moving forward during the coronavirus pandemic.

“These are certainly unprecedented times,” said the Bothwell product about the COVID-19 outbreak. “This pandemic is so complex and has such a large impact on everything that we may consider to be normal and some of which we may not even know just yet. For me, I am certainly feeling a bit confused and at times somewhat numb and lost which I believe are completely justified and natural responses to all of this.”

Wammes, who won multiple gold medals at last year’s Canadian National Cycling Championships knows this is not within his control, but it doesn’t make the situation any easier.

“As athletes we are trained to control the controllable and with this situation, there are so many factors and decisions that are completely and totally out of our control. The lack of a definitive plan for us can be challenging but it’s the cards we have been dealt and we need to make the most of these current circumstances.”

For now, Wammes is keeping his legs moving, literally and figuratively. Luckily for cyclists, athletes in the sport are able to train indoors, and by hitting the open road.

“Right now our biggest challenge is just continuing our training,” said Wammes, who completed his International competitions in December, prior to the outbreak.

“We do not have access to any of our regular training facilities and we are not allowed to train together as a team. But, we can still get on our bikes and ride inside on our trainers or go for rides outside weather permitting. We have had to make a lot of modifications to our gym program since we don’t have access to all of the equipment we are used to having at our disposal. We are managing, and we are still getting work done, I see us as some of the lucky ones where we can still train in some capacity where as some sports just can’t train at all with their facilities shut down.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been easy and will continue to be a challenge moving forward but we will get through this and hopefully come out stronger at the end of all of this.”

For the time being, that training for Wammes is being done at home with his family, which he said has been calming during these tumultuous times.

For now, Wammes, who also competed for Canada last year at the Pan American Games, is focused on staying healthy, and training as much as he can, for whenever sports are allowed to proceed.

“My biggest focus right now is on health and safety,” said Wammes.

“In terms of cycling my focus will stay the same, I will continue to train to the best of my abilities and maintain my fitness through this time.”

And while the news of the Tokyo Olympics being postponed was difficult, he knows it was the right decision, and he’s proud to be from a progressive country like Canada.

“I am proud to be from a nation that has taken a stand and stepped up in this situation putting the health of all Canadians to be top priority.”

At the end of the day our goals have not changed, we still want to be the best we possibly can be and represent Canada well on the international stage. The only thing that has changed is the dates of these goals and hopefully sometime soon we will get a better idea of when these dates may be.”