Patrick Kelly is coming full circle, returning to the Island to guide Canada’s triathlon team on the road to the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Victoria native was named Friday as high performance director for Triathlon Canada, which is based here in his hometown.
“Success for me will be to see all of us in the Canadian system working collaboratively while utilising leading-edge sport science and technology in pursuit of seeing the Canadian flag raised above the podium at international events, including Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games, which will serve as critical benchmarks towards achieving our performance goals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Kelly, in a statement.
Victoria is both the spiritual and actual home of triathlon in Canada, having produced the likes of Olympic gold- and silver-medallist Simon Whitfield and multiple-time Ironman Hawaii world champions Peter Reid and Lori Bowden.
Kelly was head coach of Triathlon Canada’s national training centre in Victoria between 1998 and 2001 and again from 2003 and 2012, the latter the period in which Paula Findlay rose to the world stage with five World Series wins in 2010 and 2011.
Kelly was hired as Japanese national men’s team head coach from 2017 to 2021 as that nation prepared to host the Olympic Games. He built up a program that had no finishers at Rio 2016, to one that produced two top-20 competitors last summer in the Tokyo Olympics.
Lucy Smith of Victoria, interim CEO of Triathlon Canada, describes Kelly as a “highly-motivated individual who will be a critical piece to our … ultimate goal of building a medal winning program in 2024 and beyond.”
The big events for the Canadian team this year are the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in England and the 2022 world championships in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
