Renata Fast didn’t dream of playing professional hockey as a kid. When she first took to the ice as a youth, it was in the same capacity as many other girls her age, on figure skates at the Appleby Ice Centre, engaging in a time-honoured Canadian tradition. It wasn’t until much later that her interest would first develop from playing road hockey with her neighbour, and it would be later still, when she was entering college, that she would make hockey her sport.
Now, with a career spanning a decade and with a collection of awards and medals including an IIHF World Championship gold and an Olympic silver, as well as running a popular training camp for young athletes, it’s hard to imagine her being anything else.
A multi-sport athlete, she played high level hockey and soccer throughout her high school career. It was in her second year of university, after she accepted a scholarship with Clarkson University to play south of the border for the Golden Knights, that she honed in on developing her skills and her professional career began in earnest.
“I was playing against some of the best players in the game, practicing against them,” Fast said. “I could see how much I was developing so quickly after finally focusing on one sport and just being challenged every single day, learning so much and taking it all in.”
Her dedication and commitment would be a driving factor in this early chapter of her career, and would lead to some defining victories for her collegiate team, including an underdog first-place win at the NCAA championships, bringing Clarkson it’s first Division I win against the top-seeded team, all with a short bench.
During her second year at Clarkson, she was also drafted to Team Canada’s national development team after attending camps the years prior, notable as it would set the stage for her journey to Olympic competition later on.
After graduation, Fast was scouted by and signed to the Toronto Furies, a Canadian Women’s Hockey League team that represented a major transition for her as the realities of the pro lifestyle became apparent. “I had to adapt to the changes,” she said. “In college, you’re treated really well, you’re practicing every day, you’re always around your team and the rink is right there on campus, a couple of steps from where you live.”
“When you get out of university, things are really spread out,” she said. “I was living in Burlington, and commuting into Toronto on a daily basis to practice, though we were actually practicing at 9 p.m. because girls worked during the day.”
After 22 games with the Furies, though, the big leagues came knocking when the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic centralization roster was finalized. From a starting group of 28 players, Fast fought hard to stay above the cut and earn her spot on the team.
“It was a stressful year, just constantly being evaluated, and your dream is on the line in a way,” she said. “When I found out a couple days before Christmas in 2017 that I’d be going to the Olympics in February, it was a dream come true. It was surreal, and I was so, so excited.”
Going on to help her team capture silver in Pyeongchang, Fast’s spirited defence helped Canada to hold its own in a nail-biter overtime shootout that left the United States on the top podium after a hard-fought heartbreaker of a victory.
As Fast looks forward to 2022, where she hopes to help lead her team to gold in Beijing, she also remains mindful of what she can pass on to newer generations of athletes, even as COVID interferes with her summer training camps.
“It’s kind of come full circle for me, because when I was a young girl, [Olympians] Cheryl Pounder and Becky Keller ran a hockey camp and travelled around a bit, and always came to Burlington,” she recalled. “One summer I got the opportunity to go, and meeting them both was inspiring.”
The camp was an unfortunate casualty of COVID restrictions this year and last, but with some luck, should be slated to return in summer of 2022. In the meantime, Fast isn’t taking any time to rest, having just brought home gold from the IIHF Women’s World Championships this past August. Renata Fast is already on top of the world, and her saga is only just getting started.
