Tait Nystuen- the U of R’s rising star
Can’t photograph people in the gym, don’t ya know/Haley Klassen
Nystuen continues to grow his resume on the track team
The University of Regina’s Tait Nystuen is a rising star in the world of running. Nystuen currently holds the school’s records in the 300-metre dash and 4×200 and 4×400 relays.
Prior to attending the University of Regina, Nystuen was a student at Regina’s Campbell Collegiate where he did not start actively training for track until his grade twelve year.
“I did not start competitively training for track until grade twelve,” says Nystuen. “In ninth-grade gym class, at the track meet is where I started. The track coach showed an interest in me and told me to come out to cities, provincials, and those meets. But I never really trained for it, I mostly just focused on all of the other sports I did: rugby, volleyball, and hockey, and the like. In grade twelve, I wanted to focus in on something I knew could take to a university level.”
When asked about his greatest accomplishments, Nystuen did not cite his personal school records but the chance to represent Canada in international competition.
“I am definitely most proud of my national titles which got me onto the national team a fair amount of times,” explains Nystuen “It is super exciting to be able to represent my country. Any time I have been able to compete for Canada has been among my greatest accomplishments.”
Nystuen competed in the track and field national championships in June in Moncton, NB, placing second; he is taking it easy this summer in preparation for a busy season next year.
“Track kind of goes in cycles,” Nystuen added, “This is just an off-year. There are Olympics years, there are years with World Championships. This year, I ended my season after Nationals and I am going to take that time to do some recovery.”
After taking the rest of the summer off, Nystuen is planning to continue training while taking classes into competition season in January.
“It is about routine and being consistent with your lifestyle and training. That adds up, especially when needing to beat someone by tenths or hundredths of a second.”
Nystuen speaks of noticing incremental changes in his own abilities while training, motivating himself to constantly improve.
Nystuen has set personal goals going forward.
“The Olympics are on my radar,” says Nystuen. “Each year I improve my personal best time, which is closer and closer to the Olympic qualifying standard. The year of the London Olympics, I won my trial but did not have the standard time required to make it into the Olympic event. Next year, I want to qualify for the University World Games. I went last year and will be eligible next year. The Pan-Am games are also in Toronto next year and would like to attend that.”
Nystuen is in the university’s business school, citing a healthy lifestyle and developing a disciplined routine as being key to balancing academics and athletics.
“No matter what it is, sports or any extracurricular,” says Nystuen, “being organized is the only thing that will help you. Procrastinating will kill you here. If you are doing something physical: get your homework done before that and save your nights to relax. That’s what I do, that’s my safe haven.”
