Third-year Camosun Sports Management student Callie Swan recently signed a deal with Macogep Tornatech Girodins de Bordeaux, an all-women pro cycling team from Quebec. Swan is living and training in Tucson, Arizona, while taking her Camosun classes online.
“Last year I applied to the team I am on, and they accepted,” says Swan. “Camosun had revamped their bachelor of Sport Management program. The first year of the new ministry-approved program, it is a lot more business oriented, which is why I am able to do my schooling online and still cycle.”
Swan is able to continue her studies online while she runs a diligent training program.
“I cycle, train every day. I train in the mornings; I am usually done by 1 or 2,” she says. “I just break up my day with training, school, and then recovery. It makes it very easy with exams or quizzes and assignments. I did some exams last year in the [Pima Community College] in Tucson—Camosun just sent them my material and I did the exam here. They make it very easy, straightforward, and they are very accommodating.”
Swan has to balance her schooling with her cycling, which often means travel. She just returned back to Tuscon after a trip to Dubai last year, where she was racing.
“Last year I was in Dubai; it was an exhibition of the Dubai women’s tour,” says Swan. “They did a UCI 2.2 four-stage race that my team was invited to. It was only the continental teams—we came in fifth overall. It was a really awesome experience.”
Swan has been travelling and racing for a year, and although she appreciates the opportunities the experience has given her, she’s still excited to eventually get to where she can enjoy schooling with other people.
“I’ve been away for almost a year,” she says. “My family has been very supportive right from the beginning. They try to get me to adapt as quickly as possible in this brand-new sport that I have never done before. The community in Victoria has been awesome—they’ve provided advice and mentorship; it’s really a good community to be involved with.”
Swan says that she wasn’t sure she could be a college student and a pro cyclist travelling the world, but the college has been helping every step of the way.
“Camosun has been very open to this… The professors, they’ve all been so supportive,” she says. “It’s been a school that I’ve been very happy with. Every day I’m really excited. With a lot of these races, I’m still kind of new, I hadn’t done them before, so it’s already very exciting. It will definitely be a learning experience, but that’s what this whole year has been about. The whole year, it’s just about learning and experiencing and getting the most out of everything that I can. I’m just seeing what happens.”