Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

At the end of September our World Champ team took a trip to Rio to check out the Olympic venue and area. The purpose of the trip was to get to know the area and familiarize ourselves with the culture and climate. I found the trip beneficial as I was anxious going down to Brazil with concerns from others, and a friend of mine was robbed down there too. The trip eased my anxiety and showed me the culture as well! It was a fantastic trip!

Our trip included some tourist activities. We climbed the two brothers which is quite steep and quick for a climb, but the view is totally worth it! We also went to the Christ the Redeemer statue and saw more great views. We also had a bus tour of what will be the Olympic venues in 2016, and of course we spent some time on the beach!

 The view on the right is from the mountains on the left, known as the Two Brothers. The lake behind me in the photo on the right is the lagoa in which rowing will take place during the Olympics.

 These will be some of the venues for the Games. Still need some work.

A little R&R on the beach a block from our hotel!

The photo on the right is some artwork on the walls of homes in the favela we walked through. Favela is another term for slums. There are a number of them in Brazil and we walked through one to go on our hike up the Two Brothers. The artwork on the walls of the homes are quite beautiful and colourful.

SILVER!!!

Silver medal performance today! It was a tough race, not the result we were wanting but a great result nonetheless!

It has been an incredible year of personal learning and personal victories; mentally, physically and spiritually. I wouldn't have been able to do this without the ongoing love and support from family and friends and most importantly from God. He gets all the glory!

Now I have 3 weeks vacation and some quality R & R with the family and friends in Victoria!

Cheers! Go Canada!

It's GO time

Tomorrow is the day! 1:48pm the light turns green and we blast off the start line! All the blood, sweat and tears come down to 2000m and roughly 6 minutes. I've learned a lot this past year and have so many family and friends to thank for all the support and love that has helped me through. Alright, enough with the sappiness. Let's GO!

www.worldrowing.com

This is the online video feed link where you can watch the racing. 1:48 local time, 7:48am Ontario; 5:48am Alberta, and 4:48am Victoria! See you at the finish line!

Won the heat!

We won our heat and posted the exact same time as the Americans who won the other heat (6:20.96). Sundays final is going to be a great show down! We now have 3 days to prepare for the final and fine tune our technique and rhythm.

An update on our Canadian team. Our women's team has 5 boats in the A final and one B final. This is fantastic for our program and country. Winter training pays off! On the men's side, they have one boat in the A final, one boat in the B final and 3 boats in the C final. The competition is very stiff here and it's no easy feat racing against any country. You can't be sure of the result until you cross the finish line.

Thank you for all your support for our country and team! It means a lot to us!

Weather delay

Our race today was cancelled due to weather conditions which caused unfair lane advantages. We were about to put our boat in the water when the officials came and told us to put our boat back and that racing was cancelled. That news definitely changes how your mind works. I was pumped on adrenaline and ready to race, but then we couldn't and I kind of had an emotional break down. It was weird because I was getting emotional over the dumbest stuff. Nonetheless, I have recovered and am ready to bring the heat tomorrow (no pun intended)! We will be racing our heat tomorrow at 1:53pm local time. (7:53am Ontario, 5:53am Calgary, 4:53am Victoria). First boat across the line goes directly to the A final on Sunday.

Racing results will be on www.worldrowing.com and you can follow the live-tracker as we race down the course. Go Canada!

First race tomorrow!

The maple leaf is on the blade! Ready to race! I am very excited and honoured to represent Canada tomorrow in our heat. Preparations are complete, we are ready and fired up! We are racing against; Russia, France, Romania and Australia. The first boat across the line will go directly to the final on Sunday! Race time is 5:21pm local time. (11:21am Ontario, 9:21am Alberta, 8:21am Victoria)

Unfortunately races are not on live video feed but you can follow a live-tracker that will give updates via places and times during the race. Here is the link: http://www.worldrowing.com/ Click on the live-tracker and look for the W8+.

Thank you for your support! Go Canada!

Arrived in Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam a couple days ago and have settled nicely into our hotel and got right into preparations. Our mode of transportation to and from the course is by bicycle. I really enjoy biking to the course as I feel like a local, but we certainly don't look like locals as we have to wear helmets. We get a lot of strange looks!

Rowing Canada has a tradition that World Championships is one of the few events in which the blades will have a maple leaf on them. (Other times the blades are just red and white without the maple leaf.) Last night we received the stickers that we put on our blades. Now I just have to wait for a time when it's not raining to put them on.