Rower from northern Ontario has her sights set on becoming an Olympian

A woman from New Liskeard has been selected as an RBC Training Ground Top Athlete. Kristen Siermachesky will be competing next weekend in Ottawa and tells CTV News she wants one of the top 30 spots.

Siermachesky said that she fell into rowing about a year ago after graduating from Syracuse University, where she played Division 1 hockey.

She said she wasn't ready to give up being a competitive athlete and discovered rowing was a good match for her.

“I think just my lung capacity with my strength and all those things just kind of came together and it turned out that this sport is kind of meant for me," said Siermachesky.

Last spring, she was one of 1,500 athletes who participated in the RBC Training Ground Competition and was named one of the top 100 athletes. The RBC Training Ground program aims to discover future Canadian Olympic athletes.

“There’s like a bike test, jump test, all that type of stuff and then there’ll be like all the national teams, like scouts there," Siermachesky said.

“Based on those tests, our national sport partners then look the results and say that person would be a great track cyclist and they may never have ridden their bike for anything more than going to the store, or going to school and back and never considered this could be something that would actually increase their chances of reaching that Olympic dream,” said Evan MacInnis, a technical lead with RBC Training Ground.

But Siermachesky's ultimate dream is to make it to the Olympics as a rower and she is excited to see what her results will reveal.

"I guess I could technically get approached by other sports if that’s the case but I know that rowing’s where I want to be after all the work I’ve put into it," she said.

The top 30 athletes will be awarded funding and she said winning that would help her achieve her Olympic dream.