Canadian rowers weaponize emotions for Paris Olympics

Don't expect Jenny Casson and Jill Moffatt to be the picture of serenity as they sit in their boat, waiting for races to start at the Paris Olympics.

Since coming 12th in women's lightweight double sculls at the Tokyo Games, the pair have swapped coaches and tapped into something unique — the emotions that fuel their competitive drive.

Those emotions can be raw and haven't always been embraced, especially in women's sports, said their coach Jeremy Ivey.

"When they’re sitting at the start line, they’re like feral animals, ready to just rip somebody’s throat out," he said.

"I think, a lot of times people have said ‘If you’re worried, if you’re nervous, that’s a bad place to be.’ Well you know what? You’re at the Olympics, you’re at the World Championships, you’re on the biggest stage. You’re going to have a lot of adrenalin, you’re going to want to go for it. So (we’re) running toward those feelings, weaponizing those things.”

The change has come with solid results.

Casson, of Kingston, Ont., and Moffatt, from Bethany, Ont., clinched their spot in Paris with a fourth-place finish at the 2023 world rowing championships in Belgrade, Serbia. They went on to place fourth at World Cup 2 in Lucerene, Switzerland, in May.

“They’re older, they’re stronger, they’re fitter than they were in Tokyo. And they have more confidence about what they can do in the field," Ivey said in a video call from Italy, where the rowing team trained before heading to France for the Games.

Canada sent 10 boats to Tokyo and came home with a pair of medals after capturing gold in women's eight and bronze in women's pair.

Four of the rowers from the championship-winning women's eight team are looking to defend their title in Paris, including Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Kristen Kit, Sydney Payne and Avalon Wasteneys.

The memory of winning gold still lives large for Montreal's Gruchalla-Wesierski.

"It was so weird, because I felt like I'd been there before," she said of the race. "I'd visualized that moment, so many times, down to what I would taste in my mouth, like the taste of blood after hard effort. Everything, the smell, everything. I felt like I've been there before.

"And so I couldn't really believe that it was happening. And so I had to look up on the Jumbotron to make sure that we had, in fact, just won the Olympics. And then when I saw virtually people cheering from Canada, I was like, 'Oh, my God, we just did this.' And I was just started laughing and crying at the same time."

Also in the women's eight boat will be Caileigh Filmer of Victoria, who won bronze for Canada in pair back in the pandemic-delayed 2021 Games. She'll be joined by Kristina Walker and Jessica Sevick — who rowed in Tokyo, but did not end up on the podium — as well as Abby Dent and Maya Meschkuleit.

Despite the success at the last Summer Olympics, Canada will have just two boats in Paris.

The last three years have been tough on the country's rowing program, Ivey said.

“We definitely have a good talent pool and we have a good, strong pool of athletes. But we started out with a brand-new coaching staff. Some strong coaches, but who are also developing in experience themselves," he said.

After Tokyo, athletes and coaches had three years to prepare for the next Olympics instead of the usual four and that was tricky, Ivey added.

"You kind of had to hit the ground running. And I almost just had this feeling like we were a year behind in the development of some of those crews," he said.

A number of teams that missed qualifying for Paris have already gone on to win prestigious regattas, Ivey noted, which bodes well for the next Olympic cycle.

“You can kind of see that the talent and potential is there, and we just didn’t quite get there for qualification for Paris," he said. "But I hope that a lot of those athletes and coaches will carry on and have another shot at it for 2028 for L.A.”

Taking another shot at gold hasn't been easy.

Rowing can be a difficult discipline to compete in, in part because of the funding, said Kit.

"These women and men, they train like hockey players, like they are so fit and strong. But we are not funded like hockey players," said the coxswain of the gold-medal winning team.

"How do you eat the best food? How do you have the best mental coaches? How do you find joy in something when you're worrying about paying the bill and you still have six workouts to go for the week.

"Elite athletes, we all encounter different mental barriers around consistency or the motivation and that kind of thing. But rowers have this added layer of financial stress and making the right decision. So I think it's kind of interesting."

— With files from Donna Spencer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version quoted Kristen Kit as saying some athletes received just "$80, $100" in monthly support. In fact, she said they received $1,800.