Rising young track star heads south

Page 15

Robin Lyons, 19-year-old daughter of the pro at Alberta's Wolf Creek

Golf Resort, is a young Metis athlete with the world at her feet.

As a freshman student at Central Arizona College in Coolidge, just

south of Phoenix, Arizona, Lyons has her sights set on the American

National College Track and Field Championships, both this year and in

1997.

Because her father, Mike Lyons, is an American, Robin has dual

citizenship and has gone back to her birthplace to study. This decision

was made easier because of the people in Arizona who knew her as an

infant and continue to help her adjust to a life away from her parents.

Earlier this year, Lyons attended junior college in Spokane,

Washington, and found the twin pursuits of study and intensive athletic

training very demanding and a little unsettling. The move to Arizona

has been positive and has shown in Lyons' ability to maintain a

satisfactory average in English, mathematics and sociology while

settling in to the demanding routine expected by her coaches.

A winner of gold in the shot put and discus at the 1993 North American

Indigenous Games in Prince Albert Sask., with throws of over 11 m and 33

m respectively, Lyons has put in a full year of training in the two

throwing disciplines. Without competition, Lyons has maintained her

objectives with an often-repeated personal slogan: "Keep the drive

alive." This has helped her get through a tough year during which she

has sometimes felt that she's not been proving her ability, as much to

herself as to others.

Acquisition of a better "spin" technique in the shot put has enable

Lyons to improve considerably, and a regimen of weight training has also

added to her distance hurling the discus. This young athlete feels that

the extra few metres needed for placing at the college nationals are

very attainable.

Her coaches, obviously aware of her potential, want Lyons to add hammer

and javelin next year. When asked if this would be too much, Lyons

paused before stating that she was quite certain that she has "what it

takes" to face these new throws.

Now 5 ft., 11 in. tall, Lyons has always exhibited an interest in

physical activity. Her mother described her daughter as "always having

been in motion." Her height was, no doubt, instrumental in a basketball

scholarship to Spokane Junior College, as it was the captaincy of her

high school basketball team, but talent led to selection as the only

Aboriginal member of a 1995 Team USA tour of Europe from Washington

state.

These pursuits are complemented by her determination to succeed; no

better displayed than the winning effort in senior discus in the 1995

Alberta senior high school provincial track and field championships even

though she was suffering with a severe case of tonsillitis.

Having taken part in several David Thompson Bike-for -Youth distance

races, Lyons shows her tenacity in, and enthusiasm for, many areas of

her life.

As a continued relief from studying and hard training, Lyons takes part

in challenging 16 km mountain bike races in the Phoenix area. It was in

one of these races that Lyons met another influence in her life.

Missy Glove, a world champion racer on mountain bikes, confirmed Lyons'

belief that, "you can't be passive in athletics, you have to know what

you want and to get it." Talking to Glove also gave Lyons a new set of

idols: "women athletes who are enthusiastic and are not willing to be

pushed around." This shows in a recent book Lyons has read, Coming on

Strong, about female athletes.

Visits back to Lyons' mother's home area in the Peace River country

have also brought out another dimension. A meeting with an uncle who is

a Metis fiddler encouraged her to continue with guitar playing.

The warmth of Lyons' character, her leadership qualities and disarming

openness will surely support her in her college life, athletic endeavors

and a future career in outdoor pursuits and coaching.