Tara Whitten, 29-years-old, can generally be found in two states of dress: a lab coat or cycling gear. She is a PhD student studying electrophysiology of the hippocampus. I didn’t know what that was either, but apparently it deals with how different areas of the brain communicate with each other. Tara wasn’t always a cyclist, she is a former cross country skier who always had Olympic dreams. She switched sports three years ago when her skiing career was no longer progressing. The switch was a good one.
At the recent Track Cycling World Championships in Copenhagen, Tara ended a 16-year gold medal drought for Canada by winning the women’s omnium, a new Olympic event. Less than 24-hours later, she won the women’s points race giving Canada another gold.
“I remember setting goals with my first coach when I was skiing when I was 12, saying I wanted to go to the Olympics,” Tara said. “What I’m really excited about in track cycling now is my goal has changed from wanting to go to the Olympics to believing I can be a medal contender at the Olympics and that’s kind of special to me.”
Christopher Meatto
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