Dipping their oars into new challenges

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This article was published 24/06/2020 (2074 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Promising rowers can be found almost anywhere.

Two years ago, Winnipegger Zoe Adam put off her pursuit of dance and acrobatics for chance to hit the water in a sport she knew little about.

Meeting provincial head coach Janine Stephens at an RBC Training Ground event turned out to be the catalyst.

Stephens, who won a silver medal with the Canadian women’s eights squad at the 2012 Olympics in London, didn’t need to make a lengthy sales pitch.

“I think I really wanted just to try something new and it was very different,” said Adam as she prepared for the first of two daily workouts at the Winnipeg Rowing Club’s headquarters on Lyndale Drive Tuesday morning.

“I kind of just hopped into it.”

Now, her new sport is impacting the 17-year-old Miles Macdonell Collegiate grad’s life in ways she couldn’t have previously imagined.

After recently accepting a rowing scholarship, she is scheduled to start studies at the University of Minnesota this fall.

Adam is one of approximately 35 rowers who have been able to use the Red River training site since May 29, albeit only in single boats. Current provincial health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic prevent boats with two or more rowers, except in the case of family members.

Earlier this week, the WRC opened its locker rooms for the first time since March but with rowing competitions effectively shuttered for the foreseeable future, Adam will have to be content with training. In fact, she has embraced the adjustments forced by the pandemic.

“I think it’s definitely opened my mind to a lot of cross-training opportunities and really just working on myself and not necessarily focusing on the team part of it the entire time,” said Adam, who finished second in the junior women’s double and first in the women’s quad at the Tops and Bottoms Regatta in 2019.

“So I feel like that will result in gains and speed. I do a lot of cycling. And then I’ve been doing a lot of circuit (training) stuff and just trying to figure out how you can do a strength workout without having to be in like a weight room.”

Adam’s appetite for work impressed Stephens from the outset.

“She enjoys the hard work that goes with it,” said Stephens. “And she’s a very good example for those around her.”

Another rising star at WRC is 18-year-old Ethan McClymont, who is also a recent convert to the sport.

McClymont tested a rowing machine Stephens brought to his class at Vincent Massey Collegiate less than two years ago, just days before he left for the 2018 Youth Olympic in Buenes Aires at Canada’s lone representative in the taekwondo competition.

McClymont had already invested two years as a member of taekwondo’s national team program.

“A few months later I decided I wanted to change paths and still compete at a high level — just a different sport and so I think kind of what surprised me the most was how open my whole support group is, whether as coaches and Janine, obviously,” said McClymont. “She was kind of my first intro to the sport.

“So going into rowing, especially at 17, I was able to pick something that I enjoyed and also know I might have had a better affinity for kind of right off the bat. And so, (it was) something that I fell in love with from the start.”

McClymont parlayed an excellent competitive season in 2019 — winning the junior men’s double and pairs event with clubmate Mike Caryk and junior men’s quad at the Northwest International Regatta as well as a silver in the men’s double at the Western Canada Summer Games — into a rowing scholarship at the University of Victoria.

Switching sports was not a seamless transition.

“It was completely out of my comfort zone in a way that I’d never trained before but then I’d also have to start from zero with all the technical stuff,” said McClymont.

“Rowing is extremely technical. There’s probably just as much technique that goes into rowing as there is in taekwondo, which you wouldn’t necessarily think so but there’s so many little things that go into the stroke.”

With increasing enrollment at WRC (the club has also experienced increased interest in its learn-to-row program during the pandemic), the pace and quality of training has also improved. Competitive outlets would be nice but McClymont will make due.

“It’s probably the best that the situation could be right now,” said McClymont. “Obviously I was hoping to be at the national team selection (event) around this time. And so that’s obviously a huge upset, nobody’s fault but it’s just the situation is unfortunate.”

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14