Belek, Antalya, Turkey

In the few weeks leading up to a big competition like the Olympics or a World Championships, Team Canada often sends the competing athletes and their coaches to a staging or preparation camp.

This trip we headed to Belek, Turkey, to train out of the world-renowned Gloria Sports Arena. This facility is a Turkish National Training centre, meaning they have access and house all the equipment any team or sport might need to prepare and excel for the Olympics or their respective championship games.

Teams from every sport from all around the world come to this training facility for either a week-long camp, like us, or even months or yearlong training cycles. While we were here, a Bulgarian and Uzbekistan soccer team were both training here, and we got to watch one of their matches, from the comfort of our own room’s balcony – they ended in a 1-1 tie, but it was an exciting game to watch. This Sports Arena not only has a state-of-the-art sports science department with sports medicine and recovery areas, but it also has multiple soccer and field hockey fields, tracks, tennis courts, basketball courts, wrestling pits, and even 3 complete golf courses (two 18-hole and one 9-hole) … yes, you read that right.

In addition to all of that, there are two 50-metre pools we trained out of, one indoor and one outdoor. Even the beginning of February was comfortable swimming outside – most days were sunny and a high of almost 20 degrees Celsius. A happy swimmer is a fast swimmer, and all swimmers love swimming outside, so we had a whole team of happy swimmers.

The Turks are actually one of the highest consuming tea drinkers in the world. At every meal we had a selection of at least 10 different teas, and a personal kettle to brew our own cup. I personally don’t know much about tea, but one of the things I love most about travelling to new places is seeing what they are passionate about. Hot air balloons are an extremely popular tourist attraction in Turkey, and the region of Cappadocia is voted the best place to hot air balloon in the world (a lengthy 6-hours North West of where we were staying, so unfortunately, I couldn’t cross that off my bucket list this trip).

We were actually quite close to the coast. On one of our recovery days, a group of us went to see the nearby beaches, and they were only a 20-minute walk away. Since it’s the middle of the off / winter season right now, the resorts are only a fraction of how busy they usually are in the summer, so it was really easy to get around and enjoy the views without too many other tourists. We also rented a car and went into Antalya, the Old Town, and explored some of the culture by having lunch in some small cafés and listening to the huge waterfalls. Turkey is also known as the stray cat capital of the world (I don’t know if they officially have the title, but there were enough street cats everywhere to put them in the running). This trip has been so fun, and I am both enlightened and positively surprised with all Turkey has to offer.