Natalie Thompson, a grade 11 student at École Notre Dame High School, ranked as number one in Women’s Triple Jump at the Alberta Indoor Games two weeks ago.
“We are so proud to claim her as an ÉNDH student,” says Principal Pamela Guilbault. “Natalie’s athleticism is only one attribute of the excellence that she shows in all that she accomplishes – truly the sky is the limit for her.”
Natalie has been involved in track since grade 5 when she signed up for cross country at École Dr. Bernard Brosseau School. She placed second at the competition that year, which prompted her to join the local Lakeland Yellow Jackets Club, where she’s trained for the past five years. She won the Provincial Championship two years in a row in grade 9 and grade 10 and her coach encouraged her to train more and pursue a national level. The new training program is a rigourous one, invluding 5 to 7 days of sessions a week, with each being two to three hours long. She started training for long jump and triple jump when she began
specializing last summer.
Natalie is excited about the upcoming indoor provincial competition which is taking place March
4-5th at the University of Alberta.
Natalie says “I was not expecting to jump this far, but my hard work has paid off. The work is not all that brings results such as this; the people around me have really helped support and encourage me to accomplish this.”