Martin Reader went from playing varsity beach volleyball at Camosun to playing Olympic beach volleyball in London. He accomplished what very few people do in their lifetime: he represented Canada in the Olympic games. Yet Reader recently retired from volleyball to focus on marketing and raising awareness of the sport.
“Canada has no shortage of fantastic athletes, but I think people are catching on to the sport too late,” says Reader, “and by the time they catch on, their goals are set in other occupations. But we can start inspiring kids to pick up and start playing volleyball earlier.”
Although the 27-year-old Reader–who lives in Toronto–recently retired from the physical side of the sport, he hasn’t left volleyball altogether. For example, he went on a tour across Canada in hopes of promoting beach volleyball to Canadians.
“I can do more for the sport being an ambassador for it in the business world,” he says.
People often second-guess themselves during their pursuit of their goals, and Reader says that athletes go through the same sort of self-questioning. He always knew he loved volleyball, but it wasn’t until he captained the Camosun Chargers that he discovered he would take his passion to the next level.
“My second year at Camosun was when I really realized volleyball is something I could excel at on an international scale,” he says.
Apart from sports, Reader promotes the idea of eating well and living a healthy lifestyle. Interestingly, he also models in his spare time (more on that later).
“There’s so much happening in my life outside of sports that’s so exciting. I believe I can achieve more outside of the sand,” he says.
Reader is an ambassador for the 60 Minute Kids’ Club charity, which, he says, “educates kids on making positive lifestyle, health, and physical choices, and prepares kids so they don’t suffer from obesity.”
For the time being, Reader plans on keeping busy in other ways. He will become a trainer with a high-end hotel in Toronto–where he will train executives in goal setting and achievement–and he will also focus on his entrepreneurial goals with his own training business.
“I’m starting a business,” he says, “Strive Conditioning and Nutrition. And I’ll be doing highest-end consulting for the Shangri-La hotel fitness and wellness center.”
Between his stints at the hotel and brainstorming business plans, Reader will still be pursuing his side hobby of modeling.
Well, he’ll be pursuing it as much as he can, given that he is actually considered too tall for the gig.
“For a model, 6’5” is as tall as you’re really going to get,” he says. “6’7” is an absolute inconvenience.”
Just so everyone knows, Camosun has never had a ‘varsity beach volleyball’ team.