From The Heart

As a winter Olympian, and long time girlfriend of a summer Olympian, my take on the Olympic journey is, well, intimately connected to everything I am. In Torino I wasn’t an Olympic medal hopeful, yet I finished 4th, a mere 3 hundredths of a second from a podium. Now, I’m working towards 2010. When I’m competing I’m in control, I accept the challenges I face and I dive in head first. Yet, the hardest and most rewarding role I’ve ever had to play is that of a fan, that of being part of a support network to a fellow Olympian.


David Ford, my partner for the last 6 years, was in Beijing representing Canada after battling through overwhelming adversity to get there. Yet is was a quiet battle, fought daily, internally, and fought with class.


I know I’ll never be able to truly convey the emotion involved in David’s journey, the struggle, and the drive that kept him going through endless training session, battles, and setbacks. Sadly, I am simply not a skilled enough writer to articulate the passion I see in David, and the utter respect and pride I feel for him and his journey.




Last year, a few months after David’s 40th birthday, and in the final stretch to the Olympics, the Road to Excellence fun cut his $75,000 funding to nothing. David received a total funding support of $1,500 in the year leading up to Beijing. Once David heard he was cut, he weighed his options. He had come this far, he had to see it through. The changes he was making to his paddling were starting to show and he knew by Beijing he would be ‘in the mix’ for a medal. This decision meant he forked out over $50,000 of his money to carry him through the months leading up to and during Beijing. Unfortunately, he had to cut some corners and sacrifice due to the reality of money constraints.

The loss of funding was a hit to pocket book but it was more than that. It was the emotion and the message that came with it. ‘Too old, sport’s not culturally significant enough, not considered a medal hopefully…’ He felt his country had abandoned him; that they no longer believed in him. This hit was likely more severe than any financial penalty.

I watched David face his demons and doubts head on. I watched him day in and day out be completely committed to his goals. I watched him sacrifice more than I’ve seen anyone do because he believed in himself, and at the end of the day he had to see his story through. I loved him for it, I loved him for every challenge he faced, for every time he picked himself up. He was very much alone on this quest, and he held his own. He kept his head down, did his work, and every step was taken with the intention of moving towards winning a medal in Beijing.

To define if a result is a success or not, one must understand the sport and the dynamics that come into play. In the pool or on the track it’s measure by personal bests and world records. In gymnastics the experts guess the results with are around 90% accuracy. These sports, not to undermine the difficulty or challenges they face, are more predictable. Usually there are around 4 or 5 medal hopefuls, the rest are participants working towards their goals of someday reaching that elusive podium.













Then there are two sports who’s dynamics are sorely misunderstood; alpine ski racing, and whitewater kayaking. There are not 4 or 5 medal hopefuls, there are 15 – 18 medal hopefuls (out of the 21 Olympians participating). These athlete’s also not only medal hopefuls, but in the eyes of their country they will have failed should they not bring home the hardware. Beyond just the medal hopefuls, there were 10 athletes with Olympic Gold medal potential. This means a lot of athletes will go home being considered disappointments – this saddens me because it simply shows a lack of understanding of this unique sport.

Because of the dynamics of the water, nature, and the extreme environment that this race is run in, it is virtually impossible to guarantee a medal. All an athlete can do, is set themselves up to be in the mix, to be one of those gold medal hopefuls. David did that, he was in the mix.

A prime example of the dynamics that exist in whitewater kayaking is in Fabien Lefevre story. Fabien finished 2nd in Beijing, yet he didn’t even qualify as one of France’s top three paddlers last year. This means that the year before the Olympics Fabien didn’t even make his National team. Yet this didn’t mean he wasn’t a great paddler, as he showed in his Beijing performance. He went from being a World Cup medalist ‘06, to not making the national team ‘07, to an Olympic medal ‘08 – this is the sport of whitewater.

Yet David’s 4th at the Pre-Olympics, and 6th in the overall World Series (with an injured right elbow), a 5 time Olympian, and 4th in Athens Olympics, was not enough to secure him any funding according to Canada’s Road to Excellence fund in the year leading up to Beijing.

Now it’s over, this 4 year block where the total focus has been on development and working towards Beijing has run its course. The results are in. David finished 6th with a mysterious 2 second penalty which knocked him out of 4th place. No, David didn’t win a medal, but he did so much more than that. He continued moving forward when everything was pushing him backwards. No one was closer to him than I was through this journey, and no one will ever know how much of himself he put out there. He’s proud to be Canadian, and wanted nothing more than to make his country proud, and in the process fulfill his dream of standing on the Olympic podium.

If this had been Hollywood David would have won that medal. In my eyes, he did so much more than that. He has set new heights in his sport, blasted boundaries, and proven you can hold your head high after an Olympic 6th place finish. He was in the mix for a medal in Beijing, in whitewater kayak that’s all you can ever do.

David, I'm proud of you.