Evan Karakolis 2008 - 2012

My name is Evan Karakolis, I attended Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute as a member of the BEAP program from 2008-2012. When I entered the BEAP program I was competing competitively in Fencing, Basketball and Volleyball. During my time at Birchmount I began throwing Javelin and with the help of throwing coach Shane Risto and BEAP/Track and Field coach Glenn Duncan, I transitioned to an international level Javelin thrower. My success during high school allowed me to gain an athletic scholarship to Rice University in Houston Texas, where I competed in the NCAA. During my career at Rice I was twice a first team All-American in Javelin throw and twice a first team Academic All-American. While at Rice I studied engineering and earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. After graduating from Rice, I attended the University of Toronto where I earned a Masters of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering and published 2 academic journal papers. Competing post-collegiately, I am a 3-time Canadian Champion and placed 7th at the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games. My goals in the future are to qualify for the 2019 IAAF World Track and Field Championships and the 2020 Olympic Games.

BEAP helped me achieve my athletic, academic, and career goals in a number of ways. Firstly, it exposed me to a wide range of exercises, training styles, and programming principals that I have used throughout my career. Secondly, it introduced important components to athletic performance that I was unaware of before entering the program, including performance nutrition, proper recovery, and mental preparation. Lastly, and in my opinion most importantly, BEAP prepared me for a successful NCAA career and university experience by exposing me to daily high intensity training and studies. In university a lot of my teammates found maintaining energy in class after tough practices challenging, however my exposure to this in the BEAP program made this transition much easier for me and allowed me to excel in both athletics and academics. Overall, the BEAP program exposed me to several different high-performance sport principals which I have used throughout my career, and helped prepare me to successfully balance training, academics, and lifestyle.