How Bolton Athletics is building the future of Canadian track and field
By Riley Murphy
Inside an unassuming abandoned Canadian Tire Centre in North York is the next generation of athletes from the Bolton Pole Vault club.
The retired centre now features mats, runways, and even holes in the wall from where shot put athletes may or may not have let the ball get away from them.
On a Saturday morning, walking inside, you will see dozens of athletes, poles in hand, all set to break records for years to come, and all they’re missing is a dedicated facility to do so.
That’s what co-leaders and Olympians, Alysha Newman and Doug Wood, are set out to do with the future Bolton High Performance Athletics Centre (BHPAC) with Bolton Athletics.
The BHPAC is set for completion in 2027 and will be Canada’s first privately funded, non-profit, high-performance track and field facility; it will feature an Olympic-quality sprint track, field areas, physio and recovery zones, and a full athlete performance hub.
Bolton Athletics has currently raised over one million dollars towards their 10 million dollar goal, and they have no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
Wood is the founder of Bolton Pole Vault and a former Olympic athlete, and has been Newman’s coach for years, celebrating her Olympic medal victory with her in 2024.
Newman is a Canadian Olympic pole vault athlete, and made Canadian history when she brought home Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in women’s pole vault.
Now, they’re collaborating to create a much-needed space not just for Bolton’s athletes, but for Canada’s athletes.
They know the struggles of not having a dedicated space to train, nowhere to hang up their cleats or hold their poles for good, and they want to bring that to future generations.
At a recent fundraiser for the new BHPAC centre, Olympians past and present, came to raise awareness and funds for the new centre.
That night, Newman addressed the room full of visionaries, athletes, and supporters in front of her.
“For decades, Bolton Pole Vault, and all the athletes connected to it, trained without a permanent home. We trained in borrowed gyms, grow-op facilities, abandoned Canadian tires, and let’s just say these facilities were very creative,” said Newman, with a laugh. “Sometimes the ceilings were too low. Sometimes we came home smelling like skunks, and sometimes we didn’t even know if we were actually allowed to be in that facility.”
Through it all, she said, athletes showed up and trained.
Not only did they train, but they strived for excellence no matter the conditions.
“The Bolton High Performance Athletic Centre is not just a training facility. It’s a permanent home for athletes and our community. A place for grassroot development and Olympic-level performance exists under one roof,” said Newman.
She and Wood often highlight the difference between facilities in the United States, which are easy to come by, versus what athletes struggle to find in Canada.
“Years from now, athletes who will train in this facility will never know what it took to build this. They won’t understand the uncertainty that we had, the risks that we all took here in this room tonight, or the loop of fate that we have. But what they will know is this, someone believed in them before the medals, before the recognition, and before the results,” Newman said.
For her, she knows greatness lies in Canada, and she wants to continue that legacy for years to come.
Newman said she wants to inspire people to show that you don’t have to leave the country or hire coaches from around the world; greatness can be achieved right here in Canada.
But this centre isn’t just for Olympians, it’s for everyone.
The centre is a partnership between the Peel District School Board (PDSB) and Bolton Pole Vault.
PDSB is providing the land for the facility at Humberview Secondary School, and Bolton Pole Vault is funding both construction and ongoing maintenance, with no fees charged to students during the school’s use of the facility.
During school hours, PDSB will have access to the facility, and students will be able to use all amenities as part of their physical education classes and extracurricular programs.
PDSB trustee for Caledon, Stan Cameron, imagines a time when students can look out their windows and see world-class Olympians practicing right next door.
“When you can watch an athlete prepare to compete, when they can show you how they dedicate themselves to being able to prepare for the world championships, for Olympic championships, it’s got to be inspiring for those younger athletes to think that this is how you do it. This is the modeled way of success if that’s what you want to be,” said Cameron.
He adds that not just in athletics, but through all levels of success, for those hoping to meet their goals and achieve great things, it’s all about seeing that model behaviour and success in front of them.
Back at the fundraising event, Wood shares that it’s been over 25 years of Bolton Pole Vault in the community, and for these over two decades, it’s grown to become a place, not only in Canada, but for vaulters from all over the world who come to visit.
Decades before that, now-retired Olympic pole vaulter Bruce Simpson could be seen sprinting down his street in the dark, with his pole vault in hand.
Simpson was instrumental in passing on his love of the sport to future generations, and he knows as well as anyone the struggles of not having anywhere to train.
“When I was in university, I would run at night on the street in the winter, just running with my vaulting pole,” said Simpson.
“I was fifth at the Olympics, running on horrible facilities, really poor opportunities to train,” he adds, noting what a difference a proper facility would make.
“Having a place where we’re set up, we can put up proper training paraphernalia, and not have to put out a huge amount of energy moving all that stuff,” he said. “It just takes up so much of the management’s time that if they can put that towards their jumping, coaching, it’ll just be that much better. It’s absolutely incredible.”
Simpson still jumps to this day, saying it’s not just for fun but for the community it builds.
“It opens up the communication about the things that are really important like school, family, all of those things. It’s just a good opportunity to pursue those things. It’s important to a degree how high you can jump, but the other stuff, that’s the whole thing.”
Not just pole vaulters attended the event that night; track and field athletes from every event came out to support, experiencing firsthand the struggle of not having a dedicated facility.
Sarah Mitton, an Olympic Canadian shot putter, says she knows the feeling all too well.
“I grew up in Nova Scotia where we had limited access to facilities my whole childhood and not being able to specifically find somewhere for track or for throwing, and I think I still have the same challenge today,” said Mitton.
“This facility is something that will give younger athletes an opportunity to get in track and field earlier, and have everything they need right from the beginning,” she said.
Pierce LePage, an Olympic Canadian track athlete, says at the fundraiser that he’s only ever trained in Canada throughout his career, which has been truly special.
He adds that he hopes a facility such as this would bring more athletes to train and compete in Canada.
LePage used the Bolton Pole Vault centre during COVID, and it had become a familiar place to him for both practices and meets.
“I’ve seen Sarah and Pierce …at other events. They’re equally struggling to find a home,” said Wood.
Ben Johnson, known previously as the “world’s fastest man,” attended the event to show his support for the facility.
“It’s good for the young generation to get involved in athletics and field events, especially in Bolton. There’s a lot of Olympians here that have competed for Canada over the last 60 years,” he said. “You need a clean environment, a clean mind, a clean body to perform. It’s always good to have great facilities that [are] designed nicely and it’s good for the mind, it’s good for the soul.”
At the fundraiser, Wood truly brought what he was saying to life, showing videos of athletes training at some of their previous facilities, including shots of too-low ceilings and skinny doorways.
During his assessment of the need for the facility, he phoned over 25 track clubs in Canada, and they all said the same thing: they all have no place to train.
“Our goal for this facility is to be athlete-first, to provide unrestricted access to our athletes, provide the best coaching, try to really get out of the way of their successes, and provide coaching education and really an unrestricted training environment,” said Wood.
“This facility gives us an opportunity to elevate our youth.”
Current Bolton Pole Vault athletes don’t seem to mind the too-low-hung lights at the old Canadian Tire Centre, or the holes and knocked-down walls; they’re there because they love what they do.
Pole vaulter Tristin Botting has been practicing at the Bolton Pole Vault facility for two years now, and he says practicing in the old Canadian Tire Centre is “pretty fun.”
“It’s a big wide open space, the lighting is great. The ceiling is a little low, so a high ceiling would be nice. We’ve hit the lights a couple of times,” he said.
“A dedicated space for the club, I mean, it’d be awesome to have a dedicated pole vault runway with high roofs and being able to achieve new heights.”
Gabrielle Armstrong has been training with Bolton Pole Vault for a year, but has been pole vaulting for five. She made the move from Kamloops to Bolton, Ontario, to train specifically with Bolton Pole Vault.
“It would just be so incredible to have a space to call our own, and instead of moving around every year, to have a dedicated space would be just incredible,” she said.
That day, she made New Balance Nationals Indoor (NBNI) standards, allowing her to qualify for the annual, prestigious national championship.
“As humans, we should plan to plant trees under whose shade we don’t intend to sit,” is the quote that rang out from the fundraiser held for BHPAC.
And it’s exactly what Bolton Athletics plans to do, building up the next generation of athletes for years to come.
Where to find it:
The future home of the Bolton High Performance Athletics Centre (BHPAC) is 135 Kingsview Dr. Bolton. To learn more and stay up-to-date, go to: boltonathletics.ca
Riley Murphy is the community reporter for the Caledon Citizen newspaper. She’s usually somewhere in Caledon with her notebook in hand and her finger on the pulse of the community. Whether it’s a council meeting, a community event, or a quick chat on the street, she’s always “In The Community” and on the lookout for the stories that matter most to local residents.