Pan Am profile: Face of the Games almost didn’t make it

She has only slept a few hours, but it doesn’t matter. Sarah Wells couldn’t wait to get back to her home city.

Her long, blonde hair that falls just above her hips when it’s worn down is pulled back in a tight braid, still wrapped in a bun from a race that happened 20 hours ago.

Wells is buzzing with energy and her normal high spirits seem even more uplifted today, even though she left right from the track onto her flight from Edmonton that got in late last night.

She woke up with a large smile painted across her face.

“Today is the best day, it makes all the hard days worth it,” she said on the morning of July 6, four days before the Pan Am Games.

The Canadian Olympic 400-metre hurdler just regained her national championship title at the Track and Field Championships in Edmonton, and even more importantly is back to feeling like herself right before the Games.

The Journey to the Pan Am Games

Both her arms reached up to the sky as she dropped her head back. Her eyes were closed, she was taking in the moment. She just crossed the finish line in first place, regaining her national champion title and proving she deserves to be going to the Games.

But before this race in Edmonton it had been a “very frightening few weeks,” Wells recalls.

She almost didn’t make it to the Pan Am Games:

To see the video of her heart-breaking fall that almost cost her a spot at the Games click here.

But her time was faster, proving she wasn’t taking someone else’s spot, but that she had earned it.

“Pressure is a privilege,” she says. “You only have that pressure if you have something to prove and something to work towards.”

Wells wants to be on top of the podium at the Games and said she is going to keep imagining it over and over again until it happens.

“I didn’t come here to lose,” Wells says.

She’s even held the Pan Am Games medals. She holds her hands up with her fingers touching, creating a large circle to demonstrate in the air how big they were.

When they were officially unveiled, she told everyone in the room “these medals may have spoken to you, but they spoke louder to me,” and seeing the medals just made her want one even more.

“I am excited to go after one of those and wear one around my neck,” she says.

Competing at home on such a large scale is new for Wells and is something she is looking forward to.

“There is going to be a lot of energy in the stadium,” she says. “this means a lot to me.”

She is expecting 20 to 30 people she knows to come watch her soar over the hurdles for the medal-final race on July 22.

The stands will be packed for the final, and the echos from her friends and family cheering will carry her around the track. She’s never competed at home on this big of a stage and can’t wait to have her city helping her coast over every hurdle.

The preliminary heats are taking place on July 21 at the brand new stadium built for the Pan Am Games in what was once the old parking lot for the track she trained at, at York University. The new rubber track hasn’t been opened to athletes yet and Wells hasn’t even stepped foot on it.

“It’ll make that moment more special,” she said.

Face of the Pan Am Games

If you’ve walked through the Toronto Eaton Centre over the past few months, you may have seen an image of her plastered on the wall, very large, jumping an imaginary hurdle.

The 25-year-old is the face for the Pan Am Games, and rightfully so.

Wells was born and raised in Unionville, just 50 kilometres northeast of the city, with two older sisters and one younger brother, who are all very close to this day.

She first learned to hurdle on a red-dirt track at Unionville High School before spending hours and days training at York University. The familiar location to her is actually where the Games competition is taking place.

Wells dominated York Region by eclipsing multiple records, and it wasn’t long until she was representing Canada.

The University of Toronto’s blue track soon became her second home as she attended the university studying Kinesiology.

After finishing school she continued to live in the Annex, training as a professional athlete. She overcame multiple injuries, including two stress fractures in her femur and tears to both hamstrings.

A small red maple leaf with the word “believe” written in black was drawn on the inside of her left palm and an “I” written on the right when she raced for Canada at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

This year, her season has been reduced to six months due to injury – hardly enough time to be running her personal best of 55.65. But she came close in Edmonton, running 56.03.

Home away from home

Her journey continued on Thursday as she checked into the Athletes’ Village, something she couldn’t be more excited about.

“I am definitely not staying home,” Wells said.

Staying in the Village is one of her favourite parts of competing and when she is not racing she’ll be taking in the Games as much as she can.

“I am excited to be a spectator of the other sports.”

Even though Toronto is currently buzzing with athletes and spectators from all over the world, staying focused is key. It needs to feel like an international championship, even though it is at home.

Wells packed her suitcase with her compeition clothing and a few pairs of running shoes, just like she would for any other competition. But this time she’ll be traveling a little differently.

Instead of taking a plane she’ll jump in an Uber for the short, 15-minute drive from her house to the Athletes’ Village, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“You get to meet all these athletes who have these incredible stories, who have also made their way to these big games, and you get to learn from everyone’s experiences,” she said.

 

RAW VIDEO: Learning to hurdle like a pro from National Champion Sarah Wells