![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3bcd307930891fe4e40d26264986c1715810adecf554557fa6d92427a864bc01.jpg\")
Track cyclist Kelsey Mitchell trains at the\u00a0Alberta\u00a0Velodrome, in Edmonton, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darryl Dyck<\/p>\nA new velodrome in her backyard drew Olympic track cycling champion Kelsey Mitchell back to the sport.<\/p>\n
After competing for Canada in bobsled in February\u2019s Milan Cortina Games, the 32-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., is back on two wheels at the new\u00a0Alberta\u00a0Velodrome in Edmonton<\/p>\n
The cycling track in the new $153-million Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre opened in January.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of three 250-metre indoor UCI-sanctioned tracks in Canada.<\/p>\n
The velodrome in Milton, Ont., built for the 2015 Pan American Games, is the national team\u2019s training centre.<\/p>\n
The Centre National De Cyclisme was completed in Bromont, Que., in 2022.<\/p>\n
Mitchell captured women\u2019s Olympic sprint gold in Tokyo in 2021. She didn\u2019t even own a bike when she was recruited into the sport four years earlier through RBC Training Ground.<\/p>\n
After placing eighth in Paris in 2024, Mitchell said she was mentally and physically burned out.<\/p>\n
But she wasn\u2019t ready to abandon the life of a high-performance athlete. Mitchell gave speedskating a try, but found her leg power more transferable to pushing a bobsled.<\/p>\n
Track cyclist Kelsey Mitchell trains at the\u00a0Alberta\u00a0Velodrome, in Edmonton, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darryl Dyck<\/p>\n
She and pilot Melissa Lotholz from Barrhead, Alta., placed 13th in women\u2019s bob in Cortina, Italy.<\/p>\n
Mitchell sought more balance and a different environment upon return to track cycling, which she says the Edmonton velodrome provides.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know if I would have come back to cycling if it wasn\u2019t for this facility,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI struggled a bit finding the work-life balance. I\u2019m an all-in kind of person, and so being out in Milton, I did nothing else except train. That obviously worked out really well, but I think it had a downfall towards the later half of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmonton\u2019s hardwood track on which she trains three days a week is 30 minutes from her door in Sherwood Park. When Mitchel isn\u2019t at the track, she can see her parents, siblings and nieces and nephew regularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s here, and now all my friends are having babies, so I\u2019m around for all of that,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cIt\u2019s just cool to be back around everyone because I\u2019ve been gone for the last seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Track cyclist Kelsey Mitchell trains at the\u00a0Alberta\u00a0Velodrome, in Edmonton, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darryl Dyck<\/p>\n
After the Winter Olympics, Mitchell also wanted to address and rehabilitate a longstanding issue in her left leg that robbed it of power. She had a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection in April before getting on the bike in earnest.<\/p>\n
She needs to hit a national standard time, which she plans to attempt Aug. 31, for inclusion on the Canadian team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been on the track now for a solid month and a half, I\u2019d say. It came back quicker than I thought,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy last big competition was the Olympics, so that was two years ago, but I had ridden the bike a bit about a year and a half ago. Now it\u2019s just getting used to pushing in the corners and being on the track and being in control of my speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting support from Edmonton and everyone here, but I\u2019m on my own; I\u2019m not on the national team yet. So the first goal is to make a time standard to be brought back onto the national team and then thinking about what the next two years look like going into LA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell would be a four-time Olympian in a span of seven years if she\u2019s named to Canada\u2019s team bound for Los Angeles in 2028.<\/p>\n
Of the 14 athletes who have represented Canada in both Winter and Summer Olympic Games, five were bobsledders, including Mitchell.<\/p>\n
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Track cyclist Kelsey Mitchell trains at the\u00a0Alberta\u00a0Velodrome, in Edmonton, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darryl Dyck<\/p>\n
The Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre was integrated with the existing Peter Hemingway Aquatic Centre.<\/p>\n
One of the facility\u2019s attractions for Mitchell is seeing both elite and recreational athletes walk through its doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that it\u2019s in\u00a0Alberta. I love that it\u2019s a little bit at altitude so we have a fast track,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cI love that it\u2019s a rec centre where people come in and get to see track cycling for the first time and ask questions and then be tempted to come and try the track. It\u2019s introducing a lot of the public to a new sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives you hope for sports in Canada for sure because you have to build it and then they will come. When I started track cycling, there was only one regulation-sized velodrome in Canada. Now there are three<\/p>\n
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