She was a multiple Canadian university track champion, she held the school record holder in the 300 m indoor sprint, and she represented Canada in the women's 400 m sprint at the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, China. By the time she was in third year, Muir was most of the way through a Bachelor of Arts in Recreation, Sport and Tourism. The early years couldn't have gone any smoother.

Staying in her adoptive home of Canada was a priority as well and since the U of A offered the most flexibility for Muir to race, go to school and work, she came west. track powerhouse was enticing, rules around income as a student-athlete were prohibitive for someone compelled to support her mother and other family members who still lived back in Jamaica. Even before the U of A, accounts of a scrawny, shoeless wisp, lapping the field in her hometown of Toronto were already being heard south of the border.Īnd while a full-ride scholarship to a U.S. When Muir first landed on campus in 2006, running was easy.īack then, the Jamaican-born Muir was already known in track and field circles as a podium threat. Such has been the long odds that have largely opposed Muir as of late.

Watch the stirring conclusion to Carline Muir's final race as a UAlberta Panda.

The inadvertent hit and run sounded the death knell for a U of A win, as the free-and-clear Laval anchor began a determined push for home. The startled hometown crowd let go a contracted roar as the Guelph runner careened out of contention and Muir kept her focus.

However, mere steps into her leg of the race, Muir caught up to the second-place runner from Guelph who bumped her, resulting in a jolt that defied the law that dictates how objects travelling on the same plane in the same direction are supposed to collide.

That was especially apparent when Muir was handed the baton in third spot, five metres back of first, which, in elite sprinting, is virtually out of sight. However, when she moved into position to run the final leg of the women's 4x200 m relay at the U Sport track and field championships held in Edmonton this past March, well, a race is a still race. Of course, the scale and pressure of university track doesn't compare to taking to the starting blocks at an Olympic Games-something Carline Muir has done a dozen or so times over two visits to the big show. Carline Muir's time at the U of A began in the spring of 2006 the same way it ended a little more than a decade later-as a member of the Panda's track and field team.

Track starting blocks near me