Siksika Nation athlete brings home national bronze
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Photo Courtesy of Syrianna Running Rabbit
Siksika Nation’s Syrianna Running Rabbit, along with the rest of her U17 Team Alberta claimed bronze in Female Box Lacrosse at the Canada Summer Games in St. Catherine’s, Ont. From Aug. 6-21.
This year marked the first showing of Female Box Lacrosse at the Canada Summer Games, marking Running Rabbit as among the first ever to medal in the sport at the national event.
Running Rabbit recalled that she, along with the over young women of her team, were disappointed to have not come home with gold, but were satisfied with having bested the team that took the gold, during the tournament.
“We were gunning for gold but we lost our semi-final game which sent us down to bronze,” said Running Rabbit. “We only lost to one team, which was the game that we needed to win.”
Running Rabbit joined Team Alberta last August 2021, after trying out for the team before practicing with her fellows for the better part of a year to prepare for the 2022 Canada Summer Games.
To Running Rabbit, it was truly a unique experience being able to play with similarly skilled and motivated players at the national level.
“It was truly amazing being there and playing at a national level – there were the girls who have the same skill, the same drive to win (and) the same competitiveness. It was something unreal,” said Running Rabbit, adding that participating on the national team presented an opportunity to learn, practice and play among other young women who had varying approaches to the sport.
She hopes to take what she learned to an even higher level of play and her next steps would be to aim for playing on a post-secondary team. She is also optimistic that Team Canada is within her reach.
Running Rabbit attributes her love and drive for the sport to her mother, who had her begin in athletics when she was 10 years old.
“When she put me in lacrosse, I hated the sport at first, but after a while I grew to fall in love with the game and wanted to be at the lacrosse rink every single summer,” she said. “I think it was my first-year bantam when I was still playing with boys … and I actually did really well that season and I really enjoyed gaining new skills and getting better being in this type of environment.”
Running Rabbit added the frustration she felt at not achieving gold has only motivated her more to continue with lacrosse and see exactly how far she is able to run with the sport.