The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

26 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2012 In his father's footsteps But former Q.E. Park cross-country runner Kyle Jones took different path to Olympics than his dad, Doug By Joseph Hall TORSTAR NEWS SERVICES Kyle Jones is following in his father's footsteps to the London Olympics this summer. But not the path that took his dad to a pair of Games in the 1980s as a Canadian canoeing coach. No, Jones instead followed his father Doug's passion for weekend triathlons to the 2012 Olympic event, going into the Aug. 7 swimming, biking and running race as the topranked Canadian in the sport. "To be honest, I've only been in a racing canoe or kayak maybe a handful of times in my life," says Jones, who took over the No. 1 spot from his friend and long-time training partner Simon Whitfield this year. "And the couple of times I was in there, I spent more time in the water than in the boat." His parents first canoodled in canoes, growing up by a Burlington rowing club, falling in love with the sport and each other. But neither pushed Jones to paddle as a kid, supporting him instead in the wide range of athletic activities he did take up. "When my sister and I were young, my parents just encouraged us to choose our own path," he says. "I played hockey, baseball, soccer, everything you can imagine." Still, a doting son, Jones longed to join in some activity with his father. And when the senior Jones took up the triathlon recreationally, his son saw his chance. "Just like any kid, I looked up to my dad and wanted to do what he was doing," the former Queen Elizabeth Park High School cross-country runner says. "So I just started training with him, just for fun. We'd race from lamppost to lamppost and raise our arms in the air and pretend we were world champions." That Jones has a legitimate shot at becoming an Olympic champion may come as a surprise to many Canadians, who have associated the sport almost exclusively with Whitfield since his gripping gold medal triumph at the 2000 Sydney Games. And should he do it, he will give a good deal of credit to the two-time Olympic medallist, who Jones trained with during his ascending years. "I first had the opportunity to meet with him (Whitfield) and train with him in 2004 when he was training for Athens," says Jones, who was Canadian junior champion at the time. "He invited a group of young up-and-coming triathletes in Canada to come out and train with him and do a training camp leading up to the Games." What was meant to be a two-week camp in Penticton B.C., evolved into a six-year training association and a close friendship. But while Jones still does weekly swims and rides with Whitfield, he's been out on his own since last fall when he changed coaches in a push to surpass his mentor. And he's done so three times since under coach Joel Filliol, who was head coach in the 2008 Games in Beijing when Whitfield won a silver and Jones acted as alternate. "It's been fun for me, I spent years training alongside him or behind him," a cordial Jones says. "And it's been nice to finally sort of come through and race alongside him and ahead of him." Jones and Whitfield will race in the Olympics along with fellow Canadian Brent McMahon, with this country being one of only eight to send a full-team trio of triathletes to London. And while they'll each be racing to win individually, Jones says, they'll also have each other's backs. "We'll all be racing for ourselves and the country, but having said that, we look out for each other," he says. "If you watched the last half a dozen races, we work together, we look out for each other, we know each other's strengths and weaknesses and we do whatever we can to get three Canadian men finishing as high as possible." The three Canadians consistently place in the lead group coming out of the water in every major race. Yet Jones' true strength, he says, is in the 10-kilometre run that finishes the event. "Not coming from a swimming background as a kid it wasn't an overnight thing," he says of the 1.5-kilometre water leg that leads off the triathlon. (The middle leg involves a 40-kilometre bike ride.) "It's taken a good eight years of solid swimming and dedication in improving it." No matter how he does in London, 2012 will be a banner year in Jones' household. He's fulfilling an Olympic dream while his wife, Dr. Kelly Jones, graduated from medical school this spring. "We've both been on four-year journeys together ... and it's been a very exciting time for us." TOP PHOTO BY KEVIN LIGHT / KEVIN LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY; BOTTOM PHOTO SUBMITTED FAMILY EXPERIENCE: Kyle Jones (pictured in top photo and in right of bottom photo) will be the top-ranked Canadian triathlete at this year's Olympics in London. Jones' father, Doug (left in bottom photo) went to two Olympics in the 1980s as a Canadian canoeing coach.