SUBMITTED PHOTO BRENT STEPHENS
Madison Kane-Rissling of Medicine Hat poses in her Canada West Championship gear. Kane-Rissling competes in track and field for the University of Calgary Dinos.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Madison Kane-Rissling is excited for her opportunity to perform at the Canada West Track and Field Championships this Friday and Saturday.
The 21-year-old Medicine Hat product will be representing the University of Calgary Dinos in the long jump, triple jump and high jump events. Kane-Rissling said it’s a bit intimidating going to CanWest for the first time, but credits her support group for helping her through.
“It is kind of nerve wracking but nothing I can’t overcome with support from my teammates and my hometown,” she told the News. “I’m just super excited for it and it should be really fun.”
It’s that support group that she says helped get her to the university athletic level, and it starts with the three most influential women in her life: her mom, Crystal Rissling, her grandma Vernice and her sister Courtney. Kane-Rissling said there’s been a lot of little road trips back to the Hat to visit her mom, and she and her sister have a really good relationship still even though she is in school in P.E.I.
“We understand each other at a different level where we don’t have to talk every day, which is nice,” Kane-Rissling said. “But when we do need to talk and it’s important, we set aside the time.”
Kane-Rissling, her mom and sister, along with her step dad Tyler Nolan, all stay in touch with a family group chat where they do an occasional trivia question of the day. She said the latest one was, ‘What was the first hockey puck made of?’ The answer is horse poop and Kane-Rissling said she was the closest to getting it right.
“I said cow poop at first. I got it wrong technically but they gave it to me,” She said.
Kane-Rissling graduated from Monsignor McCoy in 2018 and was off a year before joining the Dinos in 2019, where she red-shirted for a season, meaning she wasn’t eligible for certain competitions. Then when COVID-19 shut down all meets, she returned to the Gas City. Before that she trained with the Bulldogs Track and Field Club under coach Sean Freeman. She credits Freeman and the year off due to COVID for changing her mentality and mindset ahead of meets and responsibilities.
“One thing I learned over COVID is that anything can be taken away so fast, and you never know when it’s going to come around again,” Kane-Rissling said. “So there’s no point in stressing or getting upset or frustrated because at the end of the day everything that you’ve worked towards, that you’ve trained, like you’ve trained yourself, so that’s become muscle memory. For me, that’s the time to just soak it all in and enjoy the experience.”
The modern society major enjoys reading poetry and spending time with her friends in what little spare time she has on top of track, academics and a part-time job at Foot Locker.
She said the referee shirts they wear are “different” but has enjoyed the environment there and the support she’s received.
“They all hyped me up when it comes to track, like I’ll send a video in our work group chat, and they just like they get so excited,” Kane-Rissling said.
She also minors in English and sociology. When asked why poetry is her go to reading choice, Kane-Rissling said she’s always been someone that likes not understanding what she is reading right away.
“…Slowly learning how to deconstruct those words, and it’s just kind of beautiful,” Kane-Rissling said. “I enjoyed reading it out loud, it’s just a safe place for me to go to escape my thoughts.”
Kane-Rissling continuously credited all of her previous coaches who helped her along the way when speaking to the News Tuesday.
“Sean Freeman has been at the forefront of my athletic journey. And without him, I wouldn’t even be here at all,” Kane-Rissling said. “So he’s a really important figure in my life, as well as the Rangers coaches, Brendan Lally, and Mel Rakochy. My coaches from McCoy, Mr. Burzminski, Mr. Sehn, Mr. Fune and Mrs. Laing, coaches from St. Marys, my junior high: Mr. Moll, Mrs. Howes, Mr. Lutz and Mr. Boksteyne. And my employers and coworkers at IGA, Vince and Lawton Wong….My Dinos coaches, Jessica Zelinka, Jane Kolodnicki and James Holder.”
She heads into the CanWest competition ranked 10th in triple jump after reaching 10.85 metres in her last event two weeks ago. When asked how it feels hearing how high she’s ranked, she said it’s an honour.
“I just appreciate everybody who’s helped me get there, including Coach Freeman in Medicine Hat, all of my high school and middle school coaches, my family, my employers, everybody who’s been supportive of me on my athletic journey,” Kane-Rissling said. “I’ve just appreciated everything that they’ve done for me, because I couldn’t be here without them.”
