The track season for Moose Jaw's Ryan Botterill and thousands of USports athletes was cut short as the organization axed national championships in all its sports.

Botterill is a sprinter with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies who is in his third year with the program. He’s missing more than competitions in the pandemic.

“Even the social life with the team, that’s one of the main reasons why I do it, is the team aspect,” he said. “It’s tough not seeing the guys every day and just kind of being isolated to our own groups, or training on my own like I’ve been doing. It’s definitely difficult, but we’ve got to stay safe and we’ve got to get through it.”

Botterill, attending school through his laptop these days, talked about the new normal.

“It’s definitely different, but it’s different for everybody and not just college athletes but everybody around the world,” he said. “We’ve just got to kind of get used to this for now. Hopefully we can get back to normal soon. Everything’s online including the labs. Only a few classes in the university are they letting students in for and unfortunately I’m not in any of those.”

There are no dates set in stone for competing, but certain groups get certain areas of the track at certain times. He says it’s kind of a mess but they’re doing the best they can do.

“Thankfully I’m lucky that I have some facilities here in Moose Jaw and in Regina that I can personally go train whenever I feel free to,” he said. “Not everybody is that lucky so they have to stick with their groups at certain times.”

The Peacock graduate was a Canada Summer Games silver medalist in 2017, and is also a silver medallist with the Huskies relay team. and has been staying in shape since then. He had a back injury over the summer and he’s been slow getting back into it.

“I have everything I need at home but it’s been tough without the social aspect.”