Go for Olympic gold — in your own life

UBC Athletics and Recreation’s Managing Director Kavie Toor (BA’99, BEd’00, MHK’10) oversees UBC’s 26 varsity teams, sporting venue operations, recreation programs, and the department’s business units. Through board and management leadership, he has led almost one billion dollars in capital projects. On the UBC Board of Governors, he chaired the People, Community, and International Committee; was a committee member of Audit, Governance, Finance, and Indigenous Engagement; and was vice-chair of the Campus Vision 2050 (UBC’s Master Plan) process. He is presently the vice-president for EDI on the Canada West Board. He has also taught UBC Faculty of Education courses and holds three degrees from UBC.

Originally from Schifferstadt, Germany, Phil Jalalpoor (BKin’18) grew up playing in the European youth system. After stops in Washington State and Alberta, he attended UBC as a Kinesiology student. He played three seasons with the UBC Thunderbirds Men’s Basketball team and received several awards. After graduation, his professional career included seasons in Spain, Austria, Iceland, and Germany. He was also chosen for Iran’s national team to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. After 25 years of competitive basketball internationally, he announced his retirement at the end of the 2023-24 campaign and returned to UBC to become a full-time assistant coach for the men’s basketball team.

Samantha Pritchard is the Senior Manager of Sport Science and Sport Medicine at UBC. Prior to joining UBC in 2018, she was the lead Sport Biomechanist and Performance Analyst for the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific. In her role, she worked with hundreds of provincial and national team athletes from various sports. She has also worked as a Performance Analyst and Technology Specialist for the Canadian Olympic Committee, including at Olympics in Brazil, South Korea, China, and now France.  She holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Science from McMaster University where she started her sporting career as a strength and conditioning coach.

Former national team athlete Dr. Dana Sinclair (BPE ’85) is a performance psychologist at Human Performance International (HPI), whose clientele includes sports pros. She is also a clinical assistant professor in the UBC Department of Family Practice. After her UBC Kinesiology degree, she acquired a Master’s degree from Miami University, Ohio, and a PhD from the University of Ottawa (both in Sport Psychology), and a second PhD at the University of Cambridge. In Vancouver, she worked in reproductive psychiatry at St. Paul’s and BC Women’s hospitals before becoming a founding partner of HPI. Her book Dialed In: Do Your Best When It Matters Most was published in January 2024.