Any defending Olympic champion goes into the next quadrennial as a marked team. The Canadian women’s eight feels it will be up to the challenge at the 2022 world rowing championships Sept. 18-25 in Racice, Czech Republic.
The Canadian roster for the worlds was selected through a training process held on Quamichan Lake in North Cowichan through August and unveiled Friday with 35 athletes named in nine boats.
Returnees from the Tokyo Olympic-champion women’s eight crew last summer include University of Victoria Vikes graduate Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, Sydney Payne of Mill Bay, Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski and coxswain Kristen Kit. Newcomers to the boat include Kirsten Edwards and Alexis Cronk, both from the UVic Vikes, Morgan Rosts out of the NCAA University of Virginia Cavaliers, Jessica Sevick and Gabrille Smith, the latter two sixth in the double at the Tokyo Olympics.
Gruchalla-Wesierski is rested and ready to go after taking a year off from competition following Tokyo.
“I’m really excited to be back with all my teammates from all the crews and excited to race the eight again,” she said, in a statement.
“I’m hoping to add my strength to what the crew has already built this past year. The break, since Tokyo, has been exactly what I needed to be 110 percent on this journey.” Rebecca Zimmerman out of the Vikes program will join Claire Brillon, Cassidy Dean and Karen Lefsrud in the Canadian women’s four. Rianne Boekhorst and Kristina Walker will be the Canadian women’s pair. Elisa Bolinger and Marilou Duvernay-Tardif, sister of medical doctor and Super Bowl-champion football lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, are the women’s double. Jennifer Casson and Jill Moffatt are in the women’s lightweight double.
There is an attempt to reboot the lofty tradition of the Canadian men’s eight, which came out of Elk Lake to win Olympic gold at Los Angeles in 1984, Barcelona in 1992, Beijing in 2008 and silver at London in 2012. Unable to contine producing the number of athletes needed for a men’s eight at that level, Canada did not enter the event at the Rio or Tokyo Olympics. But the once-proud Canadian category is being revamped. The 2022 Canadian eights crew will be led by three-time Olympian and 2012 silver-medallist Will Crothers. Among the young rowers in the boat who will be looking up to the 35-year-old veteran are Peter Lancashire out of Brentwood College. “The men’s eight crew have been making huge strides in strength and cohesion and we are looking forward to throwing down on the world stage,” said crew member and Olympian Luke Gadsdon.
Tokyo Olympic veteran Trevor Jones of Peterborough, Ont., will contest the men’s single and Gavin Stone and Dan de Groot the men’s double.
The Canadian team, also currently training on Elk Lake and Shawnigan Lake, will depart the Island for a camp beginning Sept. 3 at the Olympic Regatta Centre in Munich, Germany, before arriving at the world championship course in the Czech Republic on Sept. 15.
