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Silken Laumann

No other Canadian athlete so completely embodies the concepts of commitment and competitive spirit as Olympic rower Silken Laumann. Silken Laumann started rowing competitively at age 17, after competing in track and field, and advanced through the world sculls ranks. She won bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in the double sculls with her sister Daniele. She then moved to Victoria, B.C., to train with the Canadian national team. With her gold in the World Championships single sculls in 1991, the stage was set for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

But, in May 1992, her hopes of Olympic gold were shattered. In a practice session for a pre-Olympic regatta in Germany, another boat swerved across the lanes and, in colliding with Silken's, sliced her leg muscles through to the bone. With only ten weeks until the Olympics, walking, let alone competition, seemed out of the question. After operations in Germany and in Canada to pin bones and reattach muscles, she showed incredible determination and courage to work her leg back into shape in time to row, and to win the Olympic bronze in singles.

The1995 Pan American Games saw both victory and disappointment (she won a gold in singles, but blood testing found a banned ingredient in an over-the-counter cold medicine approved by doctors, and resulted in the gold won by the Canadian fours being forfeited). After that, her career was focused on the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

In Atlanta, Silken gave a small scare to the Canadian fans by finishing second in a semifinal, and having to qualify through an extra "repechage" heat, but she rowed a strong race in the final, finishing second to the rower from Belarus.

With her Olympic silver to go with her other medals, Silken retired from World competition, married fellow Olympian John Wallace and has started a career as an author and motivational speaker -- and a mother.

So often we look only at the winners in our society, and often place those that have run "second best" on the shelf without considering the special circumstances that might have created a result. Silken Laumann fully embodies the attitude we should all have when trying to achieve our goals: to continue to work with determination and courage no matter what the odds.

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