Canada's Katie Vincent and Sloan Mackenzie win canoe sprint bronze

Article content

VAIRES-SUR-MARNE, France – The paddles were digging into the choppy water so rapidly at the end of Friday’s C2 500-metre final that you could barely see the Canadian flags on them.

Katie Vincent and Sloan MacKenzie just missed hanging on for second, as they were pushed back to bronze in the final metres. However, zooming out to the broader picture, it was a much bigger win for the sport at large.

“I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet,” said MacKenzie, of Windsor Junction, N.S., not yet breathing normally, but soaking up everything about her first Olympic experience. “That was really hard and I’m in pain.”

The pain still has its dose of pleasure though — and, for the Canadians especially, a point of pride.

Canoe Kayak Canada, the governing body of the sport, were huge champions of adding the women’s sprint canoe races to the Olympic program. Prior to Tokyo, those races were only for the men, an issue always seen as an unfair practice.

Many Canadians supported the movement for change, including two of the better paddlers the country ever produced: Kayaker Adam van Koeverden and canoeist Mark Oldershaw. And the role of Canadians in bringing a more equitable approach to the sport is not lost on the latest medallists.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

“I grew up watching Adam and Mark in London and Beijing and those were my idols growing up and I think we always wanted to have a female have that role,” Mississauga native Vincent said. “Seven or eight years ago, when we started on that journey to Tokyo with the first women’s canoe in the Olympics, that was a big part of our purpose as a team and we wanted to really set the bar high for women’s canoe and raise it to a level that was really competitive and really world class.”

Raced over choppy waters at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, the favoured Chinese vessel paddled by Shixiao Xu and Mengya Sun got off to a quick start and never gave up the lead. The Canadians looked to have silver in the bag until the final metres, when the Ukrainians snuck up to win a photo finish by just six 100ths of a second.

It was a great race, really and not that the women needed it, was validation of its status in the Olympics.

“If you saw the sport 10 years ago, it looked a lot different than this,” said Vincent, who won bronze in the same event in Tokyo and will look for a third Olympic medal on Saturday when she competes in the women’s single 200 metres.

“My first Olympics were exciting, but to come back to my second Olympic Games and be on the podium, I think that’s a testament to our leadership as a country and how we fought for this and how Canada’s values are present in the sport.”

In a real sense, this duo is just getting started. At age 22, MacKenzie figures to have a long future in the sport, a possibility that now exists because of those people who fought for canoe sprint’s inclusion.

“I’m excited to see what the future brings,” said MacKenzie, whose personal cheering contingent included flag-waving parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. “I’m excited to see what happens from here. I’m just going to focus on the moment right now and enjoy all this and soak it all in.”

There’s no better example than in the performance of Friday’s gold medallists. At age 28, Vincent is more seasoned in the sport, but loves the prospects for the future as well. And the competitor in her loves the evolution of speed as more countries put more resources into the canoe sprints.

“That Chinese crew, they’ve got it all figured out,” Vincent said. “They’ve been pretty perfect for the last three years. They haven’t had a slip. I’m honestly just so proud to see our sport at that level. Obviously we want to win ourselves, but they’re a dominant force. Coming in second or third to them is pretty good.”

If the mentorship of future Canadian paddlers goes in cycles, Vincent is excited for the opportunity to pay it forward for future athletes.

“Hopefully there are young guys at home watching what Sloan and I are doing,” Vincent said. “I know I got a text from one of my younger teammates back at home who is watching. I think it’s cool to see that impact trickle through. (van Koeverden and Oldershaw) had an impact on me. Adam has been around all week, Mark and I have been talking this week.

“It’s nice to have that leadership and that mentorship behind you and something I’ll try to pass on to the next generations.”