PATH TO PARIS: Former Huskie Harrison finally clears Olympic hurdle

Michelle Harrison (BASc'20), a three-time Canadian 100-metre hurdles champion, will don the red and white of Team Canada in Paris this summer after officially qualifying at the Bell Track and Field Trials on Saturday, June 29, in Montreal.

“It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” said Harrison. “I always knew I could do it, but there are always those ‘what if’ situations you’re thinking about. Now it’s a huge relief to finally obtain a goal I have been working towards for so long.”

For the 31-year-old hurdler, who will be joined by long-time coach and current Huskie track and field head coach Jason Reindl (BSKin'06), Olympic qualification has been several years in the making.

“I thought I had a shot at making the Olympics four years ago, but an injury got in the way. I would say it has been a realistic goal of mine for about six years, but it has been something I have dreamed of since a young age.”

Harrison’s path to Paris is not one typical of a Canadian track and field athlete. The product of Saskatoon chose to stay home and train within her community when many athletes would leave for other opportunities. 

Her days on the track began nearly two decades ago when she was an elementary school student joining the track and field relay team.

“I just enjoyed running,” said Harrison. “With my friends and down the hallways, I just thought it was fun.”

It was as part of the relay teams when she made her first appearance at the historic Knights of Columbus Indoor Games, a meet she would one day headline among international competition. From there, track stuck, and Harrison would move on to the track and field team of Evan Hardy Collegiate and the Saskatoon Track & Field Club. It was during this time that she would first learn about Reindl, who coached her brother to a national title.

While in high school, Harrison also made her first appearance in red and white as part of the 2009 Canadian National U18 team. From there, she went on to Rice University, where she spent a year before returning home for her first stint with the Huskies track and field program under coach Ivan Tam, with whom she won her first national hurdles title.

After two years at USask, Harrison headed to Toronto before again donning the green and white in 2018.

“At the time, I was kind of at rock bottom dealing with injuries,” said Harrison. “I was going to quit the sport, but when I heard Jason was taking over the Huskies in 2017, I thought it could be a fresh start. Luckily, I was able to make my way back here.”

With Reindl as the new leader of the Huskies track and field program, Harrison returned to the team ahead of the 2018-19 season and was reunited with her first-ever track coach.

From there, Harrison began to return to form, thanks in large to her work with Reindl.

“Once I started to work with Jason, it was only a couple of years before I was having success again. It reaffirmed what I knew: there was something more for me in the sport and to continue building towards my goals.”

Harrison hit the ground running in 2018-19, reclaiming the Canada West and U SPORTS titles in the 60m hurdles. The following season, she would complete back-to-back titles at both the conference and national level while setting Canada West and U SPORTS records, with her U SPORTS title still standing to this day.

Her impressive two years with the Huskies also helped the program capture consecutive conference titles and Top-3 finishes at the national championships.

Reflecting on her time in green and white, Harrison sees it as a necessary step toward where she is today.

“It was a great building block to go through the Canada West and U SPORTS championships. It prepares you to compete at a higher level and continue to reach the next stepping stone within the sport.”

In 2020, Harrison officially became an alumna of USask and the Huskies, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. At that time, she also began to look toward her first opportunity to compete in the Olympics.

With the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games on the horizon and owning a personal best time of 12.98 seconds in the 100m hurdles, less than two-tenths of a second stood between Harrison and Team Canada. However, an injury would derail her Olympic hopes in one of the final opportunities to qualify that summer.

Looking back, Harrison believes these setbacks have also paved the way for her current success.

“It’s difficult to describe, but I think when you have been down for so long, you are more motivated to break out. It’s something that has always ignited the fire for me. Some of my best years on the track have come after setbacks that build that resiliency and make you stronger.”

The former Huskie has also had plenty of support throughout these difficult periods and her career, much of it coming from her hometown.

“I was always pushed from a young age to go elsewhere for better opportunities, but I’ve had all my success and the best training at home. One of the most important things for me has been training at home with my community. That big support system has made a difference for me.”

Unlike many athletes with Olympic aspirations, Harrison has maintained her hometown as her home base. She continues to represent the Saskatoon Track & Field Club and is approaching seven years of working exclusively with Reindl, her former Huskies head coach.

“Working with a coach you can communicate well with and who individualizes their plan around you has been an incredible aspect of my career,” she said. “Every athlete is so different and has different needs, which he understands. Before working with Jason, I had difficulty finding a coach I worked well with.”

For Reindl, seeing Harrison qualifying for this year’s Olympic Games is the cherry on top.

“The Olympic Games are the pinnacle of athletics and track and field, and to qualify for these games, is just incredible,” he said.

Qualification for the 2024 Games introduced a new process for athletes hoping to represent their home nations. Either Olympic standard or world rankings, combined with reduced field sizes, makes the Paris Games the most difficult to qualify for in Olympic history.

According to Reindl, Harrison’s Olympic qualification is the culmination of an incredible career on the track.

“After the early days of ‘We’re just going to try. Don’t quit now, just try,’ to now, seven years later, having competed in two world championships, the Commonwealth Games, NACAC Championships, and now the Olympics, she joins one of the most exclusive clubs in the track and field world,” Reindl said.

Similarly to Harrison, the 2024 Paris Games will also mark Reindl’s Olympic debut. A former Huskie track and field student-athlete himself and graduate of USask’s College of Kinesiology, Reindl now adds Olympic coach to his impressive resume, which includes roles on the Canadian national team on seven occasions. Reindl has served as a head coach for Team Canada once at the U20 Pan American Games (2019) and twice at the World U20 Championships (2021, 2022) in addition to taking on the role of sprints, hurdles, and relays coach at three national championships.

Since Reindl took over the USask track and field program in 2017, the Huskies have captured seven Canada West championships and finished within the Top-3 nationally on five occasions.

Reindl’s summer will not end with the Olympic Games as the Huskie head coach will head to Lima, Peru and once again serve on the World U20 Championship coaching staff.

For Harrison the focus now shifts to performing among the world’s top athletes, something she is no stranger to.

“The Olympics will be the same level of competition that I have competed in the past couple of years, which gives me a lot of confidence because it’s not something totally new,” she said. “The big difference will be the prestige and the experience of going to the Olympics.”

Heading to Paris as the No. 2-ranked hurdler in Canada and ranked 37th globally, Harrison expects to perform her best for her province and country.

“The past two years at the world championships, I made the semifinal. So, my goal for the Olympics is to make the final and improve where I’ve placed the last couple of years.”

Harrison will join an exclusive group of Huskie track and field alumni when she takes the track at the Stade de France. She will become just the 10th athlete to trade in green and white for Team Canada’s red and white and just the third since the 2008 Summer Games.

The first opportunity to catch Harrison live in action comes Wednesday, August 7, with the first round of the women’s 100m hurdles set to begin at 2:15 am (Central Time).

Article originally published at https://news.usask.ca