For many competitive athletes winning a gold medal is a goal that might never be achieved, even with years and years of sacrifice and hard work. For Airdrie’s Sienna MacDonald, winning gold medals has almost become a hobby.
MacDonald, University of Calgary track and field star, recently swept the podium in three events at the 2024 Canada West USports Track and Field Championships, collecting first place finishes in 60 metre hurdles, the pentathlon, and long jump.
“I honestly was not expecting it going into it,” said MacDonald, remarking on her three first-place finishes. “I knew there was a good chance I could podium for all three but I didn't expect triple gold.”
MacDonald, who is immensely humble about her incredible track and field ability, broke her own conference record for 60 metre hurdles with a time of 8.16 seconds. Her 6.04 metre long jump placed her far ahead of the competition, and her 4,164 points collected in the pentathlon was almost 400 more than the second-place finisher.
“I would have liked to get a better hurdle in but unfortunately after the long day of the [pentathlon], my legs just couldn't get that extra few milliseconds that I would have wanted,” said MacDonald. “I was hoping to take down the USports record but maybe that will be a next year accomplishment.”
Overall, MacDonald said she was happy with her championship performances, which garnered her the coveted title of 2024 USports Athlete of the Meet and the 2024 USports Track Athlete of the Year.
Aside from the bevy of accomplishments, MacDonald said she believed she could have done a little better in the 60 metre hurdles, which she described as her strongest event.
MacDonald’s three-medal performance at the Track and Field Championships was the first time a University of Calgary athlete had won that many medals at a single meet since 2007 when Jessica Zelinka, the former University of Calgary track star and current Dinos Track and Field head coach, won four medals.
MacDonald said that having Zelinka as the team's coach has played a significant part in her development as a track athlete.
“Jessica is great,” said MacDonald. “She's a great role model, especially for combined events. She's gone to the Olympics for it and she knows what it takes to compete at a high level. It's great to have someone who understands my scheduling and who understands what I'm going through as an athlete, because she has gone through it and more.
With the Track and Field Championships come and gone, the outdoor track season will soon be starting for MacDonald and her fellow Dinos athletes. MacDonald says that the team is looking to head to Tuscon, Arizona for a meet in late April; although it hasn’t been made official yet.
Like many great athletes, MacDonald is constantly working to improve. For her, a goal moving into the outdoor track season will be to improve her overall fitness. “You need to be able to go into your second day feeling good,” she said. “[To make] sure that I can go into the second day feeling strong and confident about what I did the day before.”
As for the end of her indoor track season, MacDonald summarized it pretty succinctly. “I’m pretty stoked with how it went.”
