Amonn Nelson has been a leader of the Dinos sprint team for the past five years. At this year’s CIS track and field championships, she won her fourth consecutive gold medal in the 300-metre event and collected her first CIS female track athlete of the year award.
The Gauntlet: Is it kind of cool as an athlete to learn about [kinesiology and] that side of stuff?
Amonn Nelson: When I tell people that I’m in kinesiology, they say that’s so stereotypical of you being an athlete and being in kinesiology. But I can apply a lot of the knowledge that I learn in kinesiology to my actual training so I think that’s cool.
G: What made you want to do kinesiology?
AN: Originally I wanted to go into nursing and so I was going to go into the combined program between kinesiology and nursing, but with my commitments to track and field I decided to stick with kinesiology and leave nursing for later in my life.
G: What do you want to do with your kinesiology degree?
AN: Right now I’m not 100 per cent sure, but I know I’m going to take a year off after I graduate just to train and then I’ll possibly again go into nursing.
G: What is your favourite memory from your track and field experiences?
AN: The nervous feeling before intense races is the memory that really sticks with me.
G: Do you always have stuff running around in your head when you’re racing?
AN: No, I’m pretty cool, like I always have this cool exterior, but I try not to have things racing in my head too much just so I can focus on the right things.
G: Did you work up through the younger age groups and have training through that?
AN: Not really. I started track later than most people. I started in high school because we didn’t have a track program in junior high and I guess most people start in junior high.
G: Why did you pick track and field?
AN: I think from watching TV, just watching runners in general, watching the Olympics and seeing track and field. I always thought that was interesting to watch. Even when I was younger in elementary school I’d always race my friends and stuff and I’d always win, so I knew there was a little bit of talent there for me to do something.
G: What is your favourite event out of those shorter distances?
AN: For indoor the 300 is my favourite, for outdoor I do the 200 and the 400 and the 200 is my favourite.