Nearing the finish line: Skating siblings soon calling it a career
Allyson and Jayson Lawson have spent much of their lives on skates, but that's about to change.
After a life-long skating commitment, the Riverview, N.B., teens will make their Canada Games debut next month, a career moment for both.
Eighteen-year-old Jayson took after his dad and started speed skating when he was three.
Fifteen-year-old Allyson began her career at age two.
The teens train in Fredericton four times a week and spend almost every weekend away at races.
On Friday, the Lawson family will make the eight-hour drive to Trois-Rivières, Quebec for a competition.
It's a demanding schedule that cuts into their school and social lives, but the passion for the sport has kept them going.
"I love the speed and the competitiveness where you can go from first to last in a half a second or vice-versa," said Jayson.
Allyson agrees.
"Yeah, I love the speed and the community," she said. "You never know what's going to happen in a competition or a race. Like Jay said, with any little mess up the race can just absolutely change."
Jayson took after his dad and started speed skating when he was three and Allyson began her career at age two.(Courtesy: Christine Lawson)
In January 2013, CTV News introduced the skating Lawsons to Maritimers with a story about the young skaters.
Allyson and Jayson were more than a bit surprised to see the footage from 10 years ago when they were five and eight-years-old.
"That was the start of the career," said Allyson after watching the story. "That was my first year. I was competing and starting to get into the sport. That was my first coach when I was competitive. It was quite cool to see that."
Seeing the story again for the first time in years was an emotional moment for mother Christine Lawson.
"Watching the kids grow up through the sport, watching them participate in it and seeing Coach Stan [Barnett] who was with them for many years. Unfortunately he passed away three or four years ago, but he holds a great piece of our hearts."
The upcoming Canada Games will be bittersweet. Both will retire from competitive skating shortly after the games.
"It's very sad to look at the fact that I am leaving after 15 years," said Jayson. "I'm definitely going to have to find a new hobby to fill in my time."
Allyson said it feels strange to be so close to the end.
"But I still imagine we'll get out there a couple of times and just have fun with it," said Allyson.
For now, they're still both focused on representing New Brunswick.
"I mean, it's exciting in one sense that they get to do their career goals and end it up on a high and do exactly what they want," said Christine. "It's hard for us because now it's going to be like, 'What do we do now?'"
Jayson will participate in short track on Prince Edward Island and Allyson will compete in long track in Halifax.
However you look at it, they'll be nearing the finish line soon.
Before they get there, they took a moment to thank everyone who helped them over the years.
Jayson thanked his mother and father Mark for their support, their coach Derrick McLeod and MacDonald Buick for their sponsorship.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.