The Mount Douglas Secondary graduate, the youngest Canadian rower in the Rio Olympics, is living up to expectations as she stroked Canada to the gold medal in the women’s eight this week at the world U-23 rowing championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
“It was an incredible day to be able to represent the Maple Leaf,” said Filmer, in a statement.
“We had a challenging high volume, high intensity training program that allowed us to trust in our abilities and leave any doubts behind us going into racing. We stuck to our plan to be relentless in the middle 1,000 metres, trusting that we were ready for whatever it would take to win. It was surreal singing the national anthem while the Canadian flag was raised.”
The Canadian surge relegated the Americans and Russians to the minor medal placings.
The other Canadian crew members were Morgan Rosts, Antonia Frappell, Madison Mailey, Sydney Payne, Karen Lefsrud, Stephanie Grauer, Julia Vander Hoeven and Laura Court.
Filmer, who had been rowing in the NCAA Pac-12 at Cal-Berkeley for the Bears, will move back and row for her hometown University of Victoria Vikes beginning in the fall. It completes a family legacy as her mother, Helena, also rowed for the UVic Vikes. Sport is a common theme that runs through her family — Filmer’s uncle is Victoria Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes.
“Victoria is home for me, which makes me excited about my return,” said Filmer, a product of the Victoria City Rowing Club.
“The [UVic Vikes] team has an incredible culture and legacy. Team culture is most important to me, as it can either help excel or inhibit performance.”
Filmer is right in that regard and has a lot of Vikes history to look up to, including on the women’s side, the silver medal in the eight at the 2012 London Olympics by UVic alumni rowers Darcy Marquardt and Rachel Viinberg, double Olympic gold by UVic’s Kirsten Barnes at Barcelona in 1992, and Vikes-alumni Silken Laumann’s lauded Olympic heroics.
Meanwhile, Trevor Jones of Victoria won gold for Canada in the men’s single sculls at the world U-23 championships with Kyle Schoonbee of South Africa the silver medallist and Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk of Poland the bronze medallist.
“I wanted to just stick to my plan. I stuck with the pack off the start, I didn’t want to drop off. Then I attacked in the middle thousand and just emptied the tank,” said Jones.
There was also a close call for Patrick Keane of Victoria and Aaron Lattimer of Delta with a fourth place in the lightweight men’s double at the U-23 worlds. Ty Adams and Luc Brodeur, who row with Keane in the UVic Vikes program, won the B final of the lightweight quad sculls.
