Running down a dream — Richter Heintz reflects on a four-year run at U of T
Triathlete and member of New College Richter Heintz races to the finish line. (Photo credit: Finisherpix)
Triathlons run in Richter Heintz’s blood.
In fact, his parents named him after the Richter Pass, a notorious single loop cycling leg that careens through the mountains above the south Okanagan near Heintz’s hometown of Penticton, B.C., and where Heintz’s dad completed the Ironman the summer Richter was born.
This is all to say: long distances aren’t new to Heintz, who left the lakes and mountains of British Columbia for U of T’s St. George campus, where he earned his honours bachelor of commerce as a member of New College.
The dean’s list scholar is a triathlete himself, completing two Ironman races, including the final race held in Penticton. He trained for much of the swimming leg in the pool at U of T’s Athletic Centre.
His connection to the university began long before he enrolled. “I visited Toronto when I was 14 – my older brother was doing a campus visit and when I walked through, I liked everything from the old architecture to the culture and feel of the campus. I was really inspired to come here.”
It didn’t hurt that the city has several professional sports teams.
“I’m a big sports fan, so coming to a city with the Raptors, Jays and Maple Leafs was attractive to me.”
Heintz’s dual passion for sports and business made him consider a future in sports management. He took on several executive roles with the University of Toronto Sports and Business Association (UTSB) during undergrad and completed a term as president last year.
He’s especially proud of the work the organization did hosting a conference and a speaker series.
“The goal of UTSB is to bridge the gap between students and the sports industry,” Heintz says. “We brought in Jack Armstrong, the voice and commentator of the Toronto Raptors, for a fireside chat, and the president of NFL Canada, Gavin Kemp.”
Additionally, Heintz started his own sports media brand, Maple Athletes, to scratch his entrepreneurial itch. “We interviewed Canadian professional and collegiate athletes, Canadian Olympians, players from the FIFA World Cup team, the Blue Jays. It was all about their advice to young Canadians hoping to follow in their footsteps,” Heintz says.
Heintz has been blazing his own trail since landing at U of T. He took an unconventional route when choosing an internship. He chose Woodcliff Landmark Properties, a real estate development company that revitalizes and restores heritage properties such as the Summerhill LCBO, the Flatiron building and, most recently, the Waterworks Foodhall in downtown Toronto.
“I took a real estate course and it got me interested in real estate development. That’s not my career path, but it was definitely an interesting experience.”
That path became clear during his final semester while taking a futures and options course with professor Alexandra MacKay of the Rotman School of Management.
“I’ve always been an entrepreneurial, sales-minded person, so business definitely interested me,” Heintz says. “We had a small assignment to track the price of a commodity. I chose lumber because it’s a British Columbian commodity.”
It was a simple project, he explains, taking notes on the stock’s price movement. When he entered investments into the simulation based on his calculations and projections, “I made a 100 per cent return in two weeks.” He went to MacKay, who he now considers a mentor, and confirmed his insights were correct.
“I realized this was something I could do as a career,” Heintz says.
He’ll be starting at Olympic Industries in January 2026 in North Vancouver, a lumber company he pursued after completing MacKay’s course.
The position brings him closer to the outdoors, where he’ll soon begin training for his next triathlon. He’ll miss Toronto, however, especially the friends he’s made.
“It’s been a good experience that I’m grateful for. It’s a rigorous university. Overall, I’ve grown a lot as a person experiencing a new city, new university and just being here has made me who I am today,” Heintz says.
Originally published on May 30, 2025 by Adam Elliot Segal, A & S News.