Life after the Podium

Inaki Gomez

KAZAN – When athletes finish their events at the 27th Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia their lives continue. For Canadian Inaki Gomez, the 20-kilometer race walker who won Canada’s first medal at the games, a bronze back on July 9th, these competitions are just the beginning.

“I flew early this morning to Zurich and am now just waiting for a friend to arrive so we can drive up to St. Moritz for a three week training camp before we go back to Moscow for the IAAF World Championships,” he said in an online message.

The 25-year-old University of British Columbia graduate and current law student of the University of Calgary was one of about 50 Canadian representatives in athletics at the Universiade.

Last week, Gomez visited Kazan’s Kremlin with his teammates after a competition.

“This little kid asked for a picture and one of my teammates had his medal, so we put it around the kid for the picture,” he said. “The entire family was so excited.”

Gomez said the excitement he instilled in that child and many others could spark a new generation of world-class athletes from this event in Kazan.

Now, training in high-altitude mountains in Switzerland to prepare for the Worlds in August, Gomez will undergo at least two hours of daily training in hopes of gold in Moscow.

“Race walk training is similar to marathon training, but we have to obviously race walk instead of run,” said Gomez.

After two international competitions in Russia, one intense training camp in Switzerland and many long hours of travel, his life will return to normal at the end of the summer; like any student-athlete, Gomez will return to school in September to begin his second year of law school.

Kelcey Wright/FISU Young Reporter (CAN)