CALLANDER – Callander celebrated its own Olympian Taylor Milne, with a community walk/run in his honour on Sept. 27. Family, friends, fans and neighbours of Milne participated in the event on Saturday morning, getting the chance to run or walk alongside the 1,500 m athlete.

While surprised, Milne, who competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, said he figured something was happening.

“My mom kind of gave me the heads up. She kept asking me when I was coming home,” he said. “It's neat and a nice part of small towns.”

While bigger towns might have similar celebrations for their Olympians, Milne doesn’t think the same familiarity with the fans would exist.

“These people saw me grow up,” he said. “I know their families. It’s neat like that.”

Milne started his track and field career in Callander as a Grade 9 student. He attended a Guelph school for business administration on a running scholarship.

The athlete trains with coach Dave Scott-Thomas and 10 other post-collegiate athletes, and says the biggest difference between his high-school and post-grad training is the level of coaching and the other elite athletes. “There are 10 guys all trying to do the same thing, feeding off each other.”

Living healthy and training as hard as you can is key to becoming an Olympian, says Milne.

“Running is not the most fun thing in the world. You have to force yourself to do it every day,” he admits. “It’s a job, not a hobby. It’s a job I like and am passionate about.”

To get into the Olympics in the 1,500 m race, Milne explains that a runner has to complete a race in 3:36.6 and place in the top four at the Canadian championships.

“I always wanted to go to the Olympics and win a Canadian championship,” he said, adding he did both in the same race. At the end of the Canadian championship race, he pumped his fist in the air for the last 30 metres.

When he found out he was going to Beijing, Milne was pumped — for lack of a better term.

“The Olympic Village was like frosh week without the drinking,” he said. “There were people meeting each other and different-coloured flags everywhere.”

Asked if Canadian athletes became discouraged with Canada’s poor performance at the start of the Beijing games, Milne said, “We weren’t getting any Canadian media. Events we were supposed to win early, we just missed.”

According to Milne, fourth place isn’t much different than third, there’s just no medal involved.

Morale stayed fairly high in the Canadian camp, he noted.

As for his own 29th place finish, Milne was hoping to do better.

When he wound up 10 metres behind, he said he had to go around someone and before he knew it the race was over.

Originally hoping to make the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, Milne said he had a big year and got to go to Beijing earlier than expected.

He’s looking to the future now, again planning to make it to the 2012 games.