Rowing Canada, based in Greater Victoria at Elk Lake, took a big step in its rebuilding program to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by winning the silver medal behind Romania and ahead of bronze-medallist New Zealand in the women’s eight as the 2017 world championships concluded Sunday at Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida.
Germany won the men’s gold in the eight, the boat classification that is considered the marquee event of rowing.
“As our coach [Victoria-based Kiwi Dave Thompson] always says, you don’t always need to be the best crew, you just need to be the best crew on that day,” said Canadian women’s eight crew-member Christine Roper, in a statement.
“We were fine tuning, and more fine tuning, to make sure we had the best race and today was that day.”
Roper was born in Jamaica, where her father was a beach resort manager, and is a former boarding adviser at St. Michaels University School. She scuba dives and was an NCAA rowing champion with the University of Virginia Cavaliers.
Roper, Lisa Roman, Nicole Hare and Susanne Grainger pulled double duty at the world championships in both the women's four and eight. Also a member of the silver-medal eight was Rebecca Zimmerman, a hometown graduate of the University of Victoria Vikes program.
What made the Canadian women’s eight silver medal more noteworthy is that it was won without the highly-regarded Mount Douglas Secondary graduate Caileigh Filmer, who is described as the future of the Canadian women’s program. Filmer was only 19 when she rowed from the crucial stroke seat in the women's eight for fifth-place Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics last summer. She was in the stroke seat as Canada won eights gold in the world U-23 championships earlier this year.
Filmer is transferring to the UVic women's program this year from Cal-Berkeley of the NCAA Pac-12. She has a heavy academic load in the sciences, and is prioritizing the classroom for the rest of this season, so decided to bypass the 2017 world championships. Filmer’s presence will make the Canadian eight even more of a force in the quadrennial leading to Tokyo 2020.
Rowing Canada is in a major rebuild on Elk Lake, after dipping to a lone medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics, won by women's lightweight doubles silver medallists Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee of Victoria.
Rowing has accumulated the second-highest number of gold medals for Canada in the Summer Olympics with nine, trailing only track and field's 14. Rowing has also won the third-most total medals for Canada in the Summer Olympics with 41, behind only track and field's 60 and swimming's 49.
Because of its medal success, rowing was the most heavily funded Canadian summer sport, having received $17 million from the federal Own the Podium program in the Olympic quadrennial from London 2012 to Rio 2016. That, however, will be slashed in the quadrennial leading to Tokyo 2020 in light of what transpired in Rio last summer with the Island pullers Jennerich and Obee accounting for Canada's lone 2016 Olympic rowing medal.
There was only one medal for Canada at the 2017 worlds, too, but it was an encouraging one Sunday for the women’s eight. With new coaches and a revamped Rowing Canada administration in place post-Rio in Victoria, that silver serves the purpose of lifting spirits and setting a benchmark on Elk Lake for all the crews to emulate over the next three years.
