Maybe there's something in the water.
Whatever the reason, Humboldt has become the epicenter of athletic excellence in Saskatchewan. For proof, look no further than the 2013 Saskatchewan Sport Awards, where the top two awards both went to athletes from Humboldt; Lyndon Rush was named the Male Athlete of the Year, while Brianne Theisen-Eaton took home the Female Athlete of the Year award.
Rush had one of the best years of his career, winning the overall World Cup two-man bobsleigh title with partner Jesse Lumsden in February 2013. The event that clinched Rush and Lumsden's victory was held in Sochi and came on the same track that Rush will race on during the Olympics.
Theisen-Eaton had a busy and exciting year both on and off the track. It began in May with a win in the heptathlon at the prestigious Hypo Meeting in Austria. Two months later she married Ashton Eaton, the Olympic and world champion in decathlon, in Eugene, Ore., where they both attended the University of Oregon as track stars.
Less than a month later Theisen-Eaton and her new husband were off to Moscow for the World Championships, where Theisen-Eaton delivered the performance of her life, finishing second and coming close to snaring the gold medal.
"It was really busy," Theisen-Eaton said of her summer when she spoke with the Journal in September. "Our coach always talks about how a wedding by itself is enough. It was almost as if we were so busy heading into worlds that we didn't have enough time to think about what we were doing."
Maybe that was the secret: no time to think about it. Whatever the secret might be, the key to unlocking it and becoming a world-class athlete is right here in Humboldt.
