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By Earl Seitz

Catharine Pendrel

Catharine Pendrel on expecting in February and 2021 Olympics

Nov 30, 2020 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — Postponement of 2020 Tokyo left the Olympic dreams of many athletes on hold.

Catharine Pendrel from Kamloops had planned to make this year and the 2020 Olympics her swan song in competitive mountain biking.

“You know there are plans for a family in the future. At the same time I have support if I wanted to have a family and then come back and try for Tokyo, then hey, go for it. So it’s a bit of a wait and see.”

In 2016 if was four years of wait and see for Catharine Pendrel.

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Then along came COVID-19 and four years became five.

With no Olympics and no season this past September Catharine and her husband Keith Wilson announced some exciting family news — they’re expecting their first child in early February.

“Getting pregnant was a COVID decision.” says Pendrel. “We would’nt have tried to get pregnant this year if everything was going normal. But I was turning 40 this year and I just decided I did’nt want to put it off.”

Had it been a normal year Pendrel would have made this her last year of competing.

Now that’s been pushed back a year —– to after competing in the 2021 Olympics.

“I’m hoping to, but I do not have a spot locked up. We can send two women for Canada, and currently I’m ranked second. There are selection events in May of next year. They would have to be on the World Cup podium, so I made it hard for them. I put some good cards down, so we’ll see. For my part of the bargain I have to show that I can maintain that performance level. I don’t expect to have that performance level in May, but I do hope six months post delivery for the Olympics I would be there.”‘

That said Pendrel says by July Cycling Canada will want some form of reassurance that coming off giving birth she would be back in form to complete in Tokyo.

“That’s something I would want for myself too.” says Pendrel. “You don’t want to go there not ready. My husband (Keith) is coaching me now. We have set some performance standards — this is where I need to be to accept a spot at the Olympics if it is given to me.”

Pendrel says she knows herself well enough from years of training and competing what level is top ten in the World. Coming off a bronze medal performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, it’s fed the hunger.

“That was such a good race, it would be hard to top that.” says Pendrel. “The thing about sport is that it just continuously challenges you in new ways. Our sport is always evolving, the riders are getting younger relative to me — I really enjoy that challenge of always trying to stay on top and looking for new ways I can progress in the sport.”

This will be a new challenge for Catharine Pendrel, and unlike any she has yet faced in a career as a Commonwealth Games champion, a Pan Am Games champion and World Cup Champion and an Olympic medalist.

“One of the most successful — the most successful cross country skier in the world came back and won four world championships after giving birth, so there are lots of inspirational stories out there. But there are also some reality checks, so I have hopes for what next year can look like, but I also have to be flexible in my expectations and be willing to re-evaluate things as I go.”