Long journey leads Saskatoon’s Michelle Harrison to first Olympics

At the age of 31, Michelle Harrison is finally going to get a chance to represent Canada at the Olympic Games.

“I’m super excited,” said Harrison as she trained at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex before getting on a plane to Paris. “It’s been a long road, and I’m super excited to represent my country.”

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Harrison started in track and field when she was in elementary school. She said she loved to run when she was a kid, but didn’t start out with lofty goals in mind.

“I initially started more for just fun. I liked running down the hallways with my friends at the school,” she explained. “It was always maybe in the back of my head, because I used to watch the Olympics as a kid, but I don’t think when I was young I thought it was a possibility.”

Listen to Harrison on Behind the Headlines:

Harrison will be competing in the 100-metre hurdles, which begins on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics.

She said she got into hurdling because she felt it was more fun than just running on the track with no obstacles in the way.

“I kind of started with the sprinting events. I was just naturally fast, but then I liked the hurdles. They were a little bit more of a challenge and it just kind of added a bit extra to my routine. I kind of just got bored of running,” she said.

Harrison quickly started focusing specifically on the hurdles events as she got earlier, and that decision has paid off.

She attended the University of Saskatchewan, where she won three national championships in the 60-metre event with the Huskies. She also ran a Canada West and U Sports championship record time in the event.

During her time at the U of S, Harrison was coached by Jason Reindl, who is still her coach today and will be in Paris alongside her.

Reindl said he’s excited to see Harrison competing and representing Saskatchewan.

“(It’s) extremely exciting for our broader Saskatoon and provincial community,” he said. “Any time we get an Olympian coming through the track environment is an amazing accomplishment.”

Reindl has worked with Harrison for the past seven years, and said he was always confident that she would eventually make it to the Olympics.

“Coming off the 2020 season, we really started to shift into Olympic planning and pursuits. That COVID thing kind of (gave us) a little bit of a setback, but ultimately since 2020 I’ve been a firm believer that this was going to be possible,” he explained.

Harrison will be one of three athletes from Saskatchewan competing in the track and field events at the Olympics, along with Borden’s Savannah Sutherland and Saskatoon’s Anicka Newell. Newell trains and lives in the United States, but prefers to call Saskatoon her home away from home.

Reindl said Paris will be his first Olympics, and he sounded as excited as Harrison.

“The Olympics, for us, is the Super Bowl times four, because it only happens every four years,” he stated. “To get in an event of this magnitude and be a part of it with a local athlete I’ve been working with on the daily is just something I’m really going to soak in.”

Harrison isn’t expected to win a medal at the games, but she’s got some goals in mind for what she wants to accomplish.

“I always just try to do my best as I can on that day, but the last couple years at the world championship I made the semi-final, so I’d like to improve on that and make the final and be able to run to have a shot at a medal,” Harrison said.