World-class misery loves company, too

MELBOURNE, Fla. – Referring to the bevy of multinational kayakers I’ve had the pleasure of training with over the past few weeks as “world class” serves little justice to their talent or accolades.

I had to glance across the bows of our lined-up boats yesterday, during the third of our three training sessions, to verify that I wasn’t delusional. Of the seven guys lined up for their daily dose of self-inflicted agony, four are world champions from four different countries (Canada, USA, Sweden, and France) and we have eight Olympic medals between us (four gold, one silver and two bronze).

Thanks to a cameo appearance by American Greg Barton, now president of Epic Kayaks (four of those Olympic medals are his), our little training group had represented our respective countries at every Olympic Games since 1984 (when I was two). Greg is truly one of the legends of our sport, especially on this side of the pond.

Following the training session, French world champion Philippe Colin asked me (politely and quietly) who the older gentlemen on the other side of the canal in the white boat was, and why was he able to keep up for the whole workout? I was pleased (and a little giddy) to inform him: “That’s Greg Barton, and he can keep up because he is Greg Barton.”

Philippe was content in the knowledge that it wasn’t just some dude along for the ride, not by a longshot. Markus Oscarsson was the fourth world champ in our group; the Swede has won the world championship in singles and doubles (K1 & K2), and has gold and silver Olympic medals back home on his Ikea dresser in Västerås, Sweden.
Almost six years ago I took a solo trip down to Australia to train with and learn from guys like Markus, since I was sick of getting my butt kicked in semi-finals and constantly being relegated to the B-final. I’d get on the water at the same time as them and act surprised to see them. “Oh, you guys train at 7 too? Weird! Mind if I join you?” I’m fairly certain he caught on after a week of my antics, but he welcomed me into their all-Swedish training group for the next five weeks. Markus’ generosity, and the willingness of other top-level kayakers to let me tag along, was instrumental in my getting out of that B-final and onto the podium. The following summer I was second at the world championships.

Norwegian Eirik Verås Larsen and I both came away from the 2004 Olympics with gold and bronze medals. This was just about a year after he let a young Canadian B-finalist sleep on the (yes, Ikea) couch in his spare room in Oslo so the Canadian could save a little dough while training with the world’s best in Norway. I’ve been back to Scandinavia to train with him and my good friend Anders Gustafsson of Sweden a few times since, and the three of us have a lung-busting workout planned for Saturday morning.

The international camaraderie that my “opponents” and I have developed throughout our careers might be my favourite part of our sport. Considering how mind-numbingly boring – and back-breakingly tough – training can get some days, it’s nice to have someone to suffer with.

Misery loves company, so why not practise my French and learn how to count in Swedish while I’m at it?

Adam van Koeverden is a gold-medal winning Olympic athlete and will be writing on the Olympics for Sportsnet.ca.