Sudbury athlete chases dream of being an Olympian in the sport of skeleton

His mom secretly signed him up for tryouts to discover future Olympians, and now 18-year-old Jesse Plante of Sudbury is training in Calgary with hopes of being on Canada's bobsleigh and skeleton team.

When he attended cole secondaire Macdonald-Cartier in Sudbury, Plante said, he was focused on track and field.

In fact, he had never even sat on a skeleton sled before, since it just wasn't an option in the northern Ontario city.

But when RBC Training Ground came to Sudbury last March, it turned out he did well with testingthat measured his speed and power.

Successful athletes from the tryouts later get emails from coaches involved in sports where they are thought to possibly excel.

"I ended up getting an email from speed climbing and skeleton," Plante said.

He ended up choosing skeleton.

"If you look at videos, it's a little intimidating, but I was really excited to try it out," he said.

Plante saidhe's been training at a "little push track" in Calgary called the Ice House.

Once he's comfortable on the push track,he'll get to go down a full track in Whistler, where the sleds can reach speeds over 130 kilometres per hour.

If he's successful there, it could be a stepping stone to making it on Canada's Olympic team.

Around 2,500 athletes from across Canada tried out in the RBC Training Ground qualifiers and only 100, including Plante, were deemed to have Olympic potential.

Plante's mom, Dsire Lafontaine, saidshe signed him up for the initial tryout because she sees his potential.

"Every time someone would ask him, 'What do you want to be?' When he grew up, he always said an Olympian," she said.

RBC Training Ground will hold a final selection camp in Halifax on Nov. 2, at which point 30 of the 100 athletes identified as having potential will earn funding, a spot on Team Canada and an accelerated path to the Olympics.