Documentary - "Behind The Olympic Trials"
In an effort to bring attention to the perspective of elite Canadian athletes, we created a documentary series following five Canadian Olympians as they competed at the 2024 Bell Canadian Olympic Trials in Montreal. This series featured the following athletes: Erin Teschuk, Christopher Morales Williams, Aaron Kingsley Brown, Mariam Abdul-Rashid, and Marco Arop, with a separate episode for each athlete’s competition day. Shot for the Canadian Track and Field League.
Christopher Morales Williams
Christopher Morales Williams is a 400m sprinter out of Vaughan, Ontario. At the time of this filming, he was just 19-years-old, having competed at the University of Georgia Bulldogs and winning the NCAA D1 Indoor and Outdoor Championships in the 400m. We followed him during one of his races at the Olympic Trials, where he qualified for his first Olympic Games.
The next day, Morales Williams signed a professional contract with Adidas.
Aaron Brown
Aaron Kinglsey Brown is a veteran sprinter for Team Canada and Nike, having competed in now four Olympic Games (2012, 2016, 2021, 2024) in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay. In this documentary, we go through the day of his 200m heats and finals, where he wins the finals and punches his ticket to yet another Olympic Games.
At the Paris Olympic Games 2024, Brown competed in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay, where he would win gold in the relay alongside teammates Andre De Grasse, Jerome Blake, and Brendan Rodney.
Mariam Abdul-Rashid
Mariam Abdul-Rashid is a 100m hurdler from Whitby, Ontario. After having competed in the NCAA at the University of Austin Texas Longhorns, she has been training back in Canada with The Speed Academy athletics club. This 2024 season was a standout year as she hit the Olympic auto-qualifying standard for the first time, and improved upon her personal best drastically.
In this episode, we saw from her perspective what competing in two races in one day looks like, and the emotion that fell after her victory. She qualified for her first Olympic Games, and went on to compete with the world’s bests.
Marco Arop
Marco Arop is Canada’s fastest 800m runner of all time. Arop was the gold medalist at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, and bronze medalist at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene.
In this episode, we followed Arop as he qualified for his second Olympic Games. As the reigning world champion, he would go on to win silver at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, running one of the fastest times ever.
Erin Teschuk
Erin Teschuk is a New Balance Canada athlete, competing in the 5000m and on the roads. In 2016, she qualified for the Rio Olympic Games in Brazil and competed in the 3000m steeplechase.
After competing at North Dakota State University in the NCAA, Teschuk currently trains in Canada. In this episode, we got to see what she does both the day before the race, as well as the day of the race. Unfortunately she did not qualify for the Olympic Games this time around, but still aims to compete at the elite level for seasons to come.