A Forest Grove athlete climbed the podium three times at the North American Indigenous Games from July 16-23.
Jaden Knight, 14, of the Sucker Creek First Nation, competed alongside five Canim Lake athletes as part of Team B.C. at the games.
Jaden medalled in all three events he competed in: javelin, discus and shotput. He also made personal best throws in all three of the sports.
Jaden earned gold in javelin with a throw of 41.12 m, gold in discus with a throw of 36.34 m and silver in shotput with a throw of 12.22 m.
“It was really exciting,” says Jaden. “I finished what I wanted to try and get.”
His coach and aunt Courtney Knight says she was very impressed with him
“I said to him after, you have no idea — because he’s so young — you have no idea how special it is for an athlete to go to their biggest meet of their year, but to have [personal bests] in all of your events and have those [personal bests] turn into medals, and he was like ‘Oh, yeah,’” she says.
Jaden started the throwing events because his aunt also used to compete in discus and javelin — attending several Paralympic games for the sports.
“She got me into it and I wanted to try it and then I liked javelin and I did discus and I did shot before that,” he says.
Courtney coaches at the Royal City Track &Field Club in New Westminster and registered Jaden. While home-schooled, he trains with Olympic-level coaches and athletes there, as well as with Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School’s track team in 100 Mile House.
She says she first entered Jaden in track and field because she saw how active he was when he was younger.
“I know that Jaden has always been good under pressure. He’s one of those kids that is really competitive and he handles the pressure really well, but the performances that he put in were far better than I was expecting,” she says.
Courtney would film each throw Jaden made and the two of them would analyze it to see what he could do better the next time.
“I was very impressed with him because you know that rule, don’t coach your own kid. I’m just his aunt but it still applies to me,” she says.
“When we were out in Toronto he was really receptive and we really worked well as a team. … He did so well and blew everybody away.”
For Jaden’s part, he says he says it was good life experience.
“You learned a lot of life skills. You had to get up and you had to go out and you had to get yourself ready.”
Next, Jaden hopes to compete at the B.C. Summer Games as well as try some new events, perhaps long jump.
“We just want him to do it because he loves it,” says Courtney.