On the Road Again ...

His short lived rest over, Riley hit the road again this week, first to Montreal for a training camp, then yesterday he and 23 other young athletes from across Canada flew down to Puerto Rico for the Junior Pan American Diving Championships.

Riley first attended this meet when he was nine years old. It was in Mexico City and I went along too. Couldn't imagine my sweet boy alone in one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world. Riley came away from that meet (his first international) with three gold medals and I came away with the first glimpse of what everyone else in the diving community was saying, "this kid is something special". Named the Top Male Diver at an event in which he couldn't even fit into the track suit, it was magic.

Six years later, he's off to his third Junior Pan Am event and I'm not along for the ride this time. He is such a seasoned traveller, he doesn't often need his mom. As long as he has his laptop and his trusty gaming systems (he took along not one but two XBox Guitar Hero's - don't ask) he does pretty well. This time he is the leader on the trip, the big kid - his room mate is about 3 feet tall and on his first trip. I hope Riley is as kind as Julio was so long ago in Mexico City.

The competition will be tough - at sixteen he's diving harder, higher and working like he's never had to before. He's injured, shoulders, knees, wrists all ache from the hours of training. Its an Olympic year and everything is on fast forward. I don't expect three gold medals this time around, in fact, he is not even diving in the 1 metre to save his energy for the 3 metre and platform, but I know he will do his best and I'll be a proud mom once again.