Young Canadian track, volleyball star Shadd-Ceres says options are wide open

Trinity Shadd-Ceres is one of Canada's top young track and field athletes, and arguably one of Team Ontario's busiest at the Canada Summer Games.

But track is only half of the 15-year-old's athletic repertoire. While one of her goals is to eventually own the Canadian long jump record, she's also an accomplished volleyball player who dreams of one day playing for Canada at the Olympics.

"Right now my options are open," she said. "I'm leaning more towards volleyball and doing track as my off-season [sport] because it's really good cross-training, track helps volleyball."

She's competing in the long jump, 100 and 4x100 relay for Ontario at the Canada Games in southern Ontario's Niagara Region, where track and field is one of the highlights of Week 2.

Shadd-Ceres originally hoped to play volleyball at the Games, but chose to focus on track this summer in hopes of competing at the recent world U20 championships in Cali, Colombia. She eventually was told she was too young for that team.

Her personal-best long jump of 6.35 metres at the Ontario Canada Games trials would have placed her fifth at the U20 worlds.

The Canadian U20 record is 6.52 set 20 years ago by Krysha Bayley. Christabel Nettey's Canadian senior record is 6.99.

Despite her excellent results on the track, Shadd-Ceres said her heart is truly in volleyball.

"It's a team sport," she said. "You have to do your part of it, but there's less pressure I guess. I'm very much like an overthinker and a perfectionist at track. If I mess up once, it's just on myself. When I mess up in volleyball, like it's my fault, but it's not like all the pressure's just on me."

In volleyball, there are "so many opportunities" in a game to make up for a missed play.

"My mom is actually