Butterworth

It’s always important to time your peak at the right time. This being an Olympic year, it is very important for athletes to be at their best to qualify for the team representing Canada in Tokyo, then to do the country proud once they have arrived.

With so much on the line, Alycia Butterworth set new personal best times in three different distances: the 5,000 metres, 2,000-metre steeplechase, and her Olympic event, the 3,000-metre steeplechase.

With second-place finishes in each of her three 3,000-metre steeplechase races this season, Butterworth has shown that she can hang with her teammates in the event, Geneviève Lalonde and Regan Yee, both of whom achieved the Olympic standard. Her new personal best of 9:31.27, set at the Harry Jerome Track Classic in British Columbia this spring, was more than nine seconds faster than her best time in 2019 – the last time she raced, thanks to the pandemic.

Butterworth has also dedicated time and money to help her old high school replace their unsafe track. She donated her prize money from that personal best race to benefit the new track at Parksville High.

Finishing her third Athletics Canada Tokyo Qualifier Series race in less than three weeks at La Classique de Montréal, Butterworth knew she had not hit the Olympic standard, but that her consistent performances would likely bank enough points in the World Rankings to punch her ticket to Japan.

Before Tokyo, Butterworth’s biggest stage was the 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships in London. Racing at her first Worlds, Butterworth finished eighth in her heat in the 3,000-metre steeplechase.

She also competed for the University of Idaho in track and cross-country, qualifying for the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in the 3,000-metre steeplechase in 2015.

On a roll and headed to Tokyo, Butterworth will have another opportunity to show that she is peaking at just the right time.