Jasneet Nijjar was thrilled to be in Paris at the 2024 Summer Games but didn't get to run, only fuelling her desire to race in Los Angeles four years from now.
A Queen Elizabeth Secondary grad, the Surrey-raised track athlete was in France in early August as a first-time Olympian, a young member of the Canadian women's 4x400M relay team announced July 2 by Athletics Canada and Canadian Olympic Committee.
"I went to Paris part of the relay pool, and in the 4x400 there were seven of us," Nijjar, 23, explained Thursday (Aug. 29). "It all came down to the coaches' decision of who was going to run."
Turns out, she wasn't selected.
"I obviously respect their decision," she added, "and that doesn't change the trip for me, nor does it change my experience there, but it just kind of fuels me for the future. I'm so proud of those girls and so proud of what our team did there because at the end of the day, it's a 4x400M relay, it's not an individual event, it takes a team to do that, and all seven of us are part of that 4x400 squad."
In a phone call, Nijjar spoke to the Now-Leader from Pullman, WA, where she's studying kinesiology at Washington State University. Post-Paris, she returned home to Surrey for some family time before hitting the books again south of the border.
Paris was "an amazing, amazing experience," raved Nijjar, who was at the Games for just over a week, Aug. 3 to 12.
"We had a camp in Barcelona and Spain before that, which was great, too," she recalled. "Then going to Paris, like everyone says, it's quite overwhelming, it's a lot. The (athletes) village was huge, so many things to do, and I was trying to just maintain composure and be focused on what I need to do, whether I was running or not.
"Everything was so athlete-oriented, how everything was set up," Nijjar added, "and Team Canada did an amazing job with the lounges, the support staff they had on site. Trying to go watch other sports at the venues can be a lot, a lot of walking and all that, so we had TVs in the lounge area where all the athletes could sit down and watch other athletes from Canada, which was an amazing thing."
She wasn't in Paris in time for the Games' opening ceremony.
"We were still in Spain, but we watched it together, and we got to go to the closing ceremony, which was nice, being in the stadium where we were competing. No matter if it was in the morning or afternoon for a session, that stadium was always full."
Earlier this summer, Nijjar earned her trip to Paris with a fourth-place finish in the 400M at the Canadian track championships, and now wants to aim for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
"It's in our backyard, so 100 per cent I want to be there," she said. "After college there can be uncertainty of, like, do you want to continue doing the sport? I think the timing for me was just perfect with these Games, because it kind of made a dream come true and showed me that I can do this and I can definitely qualify as an individual 400 as well. So I think the goal would be 2028 and again, trying to focus on those individual events and trying to get a spot for the 400."
Four years isn't a long time in the world of track, Nijjar said.
"That cycle will go by so fast," she insisted. "I will be in a different stage of my life, kind of be entering the professional aspect of things in track and field, going through those challenges, but I'm up for any challenge. Just being so close and being there (in Paris) has definitely showed me that every single challenge, every single sacrifice I've made, seeing how proud my parents were when they were in Paris, too, showed me that I'm not done yet, I'm so young and I still have so much ahead of me. My support system has just been so amazing that I wanna do it for them one more time, and maybe more than that, who knows."
Nijjar will now be working to secure sponsorships and enough funding to get back to the Olympics, with international meets in her plans.
Whenever and wherever she runs, Surrey will always be her "village," she said.
"I try to come back as often as I can, and B.C. is definitely my comfort zone. It was so good being home after the Paris Games. There's a thing called Olympics Blues, so just being by my family and being in my comfort space, that definitely helped me get over those Olympic Blues."
Nijjar long ago began training with Jessie Dosanjh, a founding member of Universal Athletics Club in Surrey and Delta.
"I started track when I was seven with Universal," she noted. "Jessie, we call him Uncle Jessie, and he's been amazing, you know. No matter what race I'm in, I always text him first, telling him how I did. He's the first one that actually put this dream in my head, what the goal is."
