Digging in the sand for Olympic dreams

 

By Yvonne Zacharias, Vancouver Sun July 16, 2010
  
Serendipity is one of those words that slides off the tongue. It somehow makes you smile.Canadian pro beach volleyball player Leah Allinger, who is competing with playing partner Dana Cook in this weekend's Vancouver Open at Kits Beach, is using the word a lot these days -- and she has good reason.

First, the 31-year-old athlete, who divides her time between Vancouver and the Los Angeles area, seems to have stumbled into her sport almost by accident in Mexico, only to find that she excels in it.Second, she has found a way to combine her passion for sports with her creative side, having entered into a partnership to design a line of swimwear that she will debut on tour this summer as she makes a bid to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

That's serendipity for you. But it helps, too, that she comes from the right pedigree to be making bold splashes in the sports world.Her mother, Cathy Priestner Allinger, was a silver medallist in speed skating in the 1976 Olympics and the lead author of the Own The Podium 2010 report launching the $110 million initiative that provided Canadian athletes with the resources they needed to win big at these Olympics.

Her father, Todd Allinger,co-wrote the Own The Podium report with his wife and was manager of the "top-secret" program that launched 55 projects designed to outfit Canadian athletes with top-flight equipment.The engaging athlete, who played for five years with the UBC volleyball team while she earned a degree in psychology, was playing pro volleyball in Mexico when she discovered the beach game. Something clicked on the sand. "It just felt like everything I was good at was maximized there," said the five-foot-10 Allinger, who sometimes felt undersized in the indoor game.After returning to Canada, she worked with athletes for a while with the Canadian Olympic Committee.Then a tragedy on the North Shore became the lightning rod that propelled her into actionIn 2006, Quinn Keast, a rising young basketball star with the Handsworth Royals, was struck down by a bus and killed at the age of 18 after leaving his high school graduation dinner.The death of the popular athlete plunged the North Shore into mourning.Keast's death was a poignant reminder to Allinger that life can be short. If you have a passion and a dream, you have to honour it. Keast had written in his journal that he wanted to live life with no regrets.Those words kicked Allinger back out onto the beach volleyball court with a vengeance. In his honour, in every game she plays, she wears a bracelet that says "No regrets."

Like most aspiring Olympians, Allinger struggles with balancing the need for an income with the need to train for about five hours a day. Right now, to avoid the trap of a 9-to-5 job, she is doing a lot of coaching and random jobs acting in commercials or as a TV stunt person. Then there is her latest gig, the swimwear line.Quite by chance, she met up with West Vancouver's Kathy Pettigrew, the founder of Vivvos, a line of sassy, Brazilian-inspired underwear.The two have now teamed up to design a swimwear line that Allinger will wear exclusively this summer. Upon the start of sales next year, she will receive a portion of each online sale to pursue her Olympic dream.So with blooming business possibilities, the beach and the mountains forming the backdrop for her work, life is good. "When your work and your play are indistinguishable, that's when you know you are living life as you should. My work and my play are completely indistinguishable. I love it all."

yzacharias@vancouversun.com
- The Vancouver Open at Kits Beach gets underway today, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with qualifying. The main draw is Saturday and the finals are Sunday.
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