Our trip over the North Pole from Toronto to Beijing was long, but wrought with anticipation and excitement, so the time honestly flew by.
Arrival at the athletes’ village was fun and exciting, and thanks to the disguises we made, we managed to avoid the hordes of raging fans. Or maybe they were all following Kobe and LeBron around, or maybe I was following Kobe and LeBron around. No, I wasn’t … in fact for a second I felt sorry for the U.S. men’s basketball team, since they were getting totally bombarded in the village by their fellow Olympians, when the village is supposed to be like a safe haven from reporters and autograph seekers. Then after about a millisecond I realized just who I was feeling sorry for, and promptly smartened the hell up. They are easily the most famous athletes here without an Olympic gold and honestly, I’m cheering for Spain in the men’s basketball. Go Calderon!
Thanks to everyone at the Burloak Canoe Club in Oakville for throwing the best send-off five Olympians could ask for! It was an incredible way to say goodbye to everyone on Monday, and to highlight what an amazing Olympic legacy Canada – and Burloak Canoe Club – are continuing to forge in the sport of canoe-kayak.
1984 Olympic champion Larry Cain joined current national team canoeist Ian Mortimer as emcee. Larry spoke about the cycle which seems to have gone full circle at Burloak over the past 24 years. In 1984, the then Oakville Canoe Club sent four athletes and one coach to the Olympics in Los Angeles, as the now Burloak Canoe Club is doing this year. The coach in 1984 was Jim Reardon, who stroked the K4 in 1972. This year it’ll be his son Brady piloting the four-man craft along with our club mate Chris Pelinni and Rhys Hill and Angus Mortimer of the Rideau Canoe Club in Ottawa. Scott Oldershaw, also from Burloak, was one of Larry’s teammates in 1984 and now Scott is our coach and leader here in Beijing.
Rounding off the Burloak contingent is my great friend and longtime training mate, Mark Oldershaw, Scott’s son. Mark is, as far as I know, the first third-generation Canadian Olympian … maybe the world’s first. Mark’s grandfather Bert paddled in the ’49, ’52 and ’56 Olympic games, his uncles Reed and Dean paddled in the ’72 and ’76 Games, his father and our coach Scott raced in ’84, and coached in 1996, 2004 and now again in 2008. Quite a family!
As a demonstration of the Olympic legacy canoe-kayak can righteously claim in Canada, 17 Olympians paddled a war canoe up to the dock at the club, with around 400 people to greet us on our arrival. The war canoe is a distinctly Canadian event, raced only at our national championships, and it was a great honour to paddle with 16 men who have all raced canoes and kayaks at the Olympic Games. Someone from our great boat was at every Olympics since 1968, as either a coach or athlete.
With that, the five men of Burloak were off to take on the world once again.