PROUDLY MARCHING - TOGETHER

The Olympic Games have always been an example. Superficially, the Games are demonstrative of what the human body is physically capable of achieving. The records athletes break work to answer simple questions like; How fast can a person run? How high can a person jump? But the power of sport is capable of producing much deeper results.

 

The Olympic Games can do far more than simply set the bar of human athletic potential. I believe that sport’s greatest obligation to society is the cultivation of an open, welcoming and inclusive environment. So it seems natural (if not overdue) that the Canadian Olympic Team is joining in Canada’s Pride celebrations this year, and hopefully forever.

Many people, myself included, publicly commended the NBA’s Jason Collins on his courage interviewing with Sports Illustrated for his ‘coming out’ article a couple months ago. However, as the news of his lifestyle made increasing headlines, many people questioned why a player’s sexual orientation matters, why it was newsworthy.

The reason a person’s sexual orientation is still worthy of discussion is due to the unfortunate reality that it takes tremendous courage to be open about these sorts of things in 2013.

I don’t think it should have to take courage.

A truly open, accepting and compassionate society welcomes everyone to the field of play. So, Jason’s article and the discussion around it are indeed necessary, but hopefully only as a means to the end of that necessity.

The goal of every Olympian is more or less the same; we all want to be winners. In my experience, being happy is an essential step toward the podium. I’m on a Canadian Olympic Team that values diversity, and as role models I think we have a responsibility to our communities to promote a strong sense of personal identity. By embracing our identities, and fostering a safe and comfortable environment for our friends and teammates in which they can be themselves, I think we all win.

Pride is a celebration of love.

It’s a statement that love isn’t something to be merely tolerated, accepted or legalized. It’s something beautiful and natural and is also probably the single most important thing in the world. Pride is about celebrating something positive, progressive, and fun.

It’s also an awesome parade, one in which this Olympian, and ally, is unbelievably proud to be marching with his teammates and neighbours right here in Toronto this Sunday.

Hope to see you there!

K2, Something New!

(pictured above, many fast men's K2 boats going really hard in Poznan. One from Holland, one from Poland, one from Germany, one from Austria. Burloak pictured in Canadian colours in the middle there)

"Great things aren't just worth working hard for, but also waiting for as well.  Patience is like a virtue, or something." - somebody very wise

I've taken a big break from my usual routine for the past few months.  Paddling my boat has become the thing I look forward to doing everyday, once all the other things are taken care of.  I needed (and continue to need) to diversify my portfolio of works a little, and to focus on all of the things that are really important that don't involve "left-stroke, right-stroke".

Happy to say that I'm very much enjoying the process of "normalization", and stoked that I still seem to have plenty of strokes left in these elbows.

I'm freshly home from our 2013 European Tour, which started in the beautiful pseudo-European city of Montreal a few weeks ago, with our National Team Selection Trials. A concise update is in order...

• Montreal trials were good, just a little windy. I won the K1 1000m race with my K2 buddy Brady a close 2nd.  The young gun crew of Rob Clarke and Andrew Jessop bettered us in the K2 1000m by a length, but by finishing 2nd we earned the privilege of racing at the World Cups.
• Our first Euro stop was Racice, Czech Republic (pre-flood).  Brady and I had some ups and downs but thrived on the ups and learned from the downs.  K2 at this world-class level is a brand new beast for me/us, so we're amped to be partaking in a learning process. We were 9th in the 1000m, 10th in the 500m and I raced the 5km smashup and managed to get back into 9th by the finishline after being probably last at one point.  Fun times were had by all.
• I went to Sweden for a week in between the world cups for some lox and latenight sunshine. Also there was some wind.
• I arrived in Poznan Poland for World Cup 2 after some train rides through 6 cities ending in -köping (Swedish for -market).  Hopped back into the teamboats with a K4 session with our speedy U23 dudes (Nice work fellas!), and back to the grind in K2 with Brady.  We sorted a few little thingies out, and started feeling fast again.  We had a good regatta, contributing one silver and one bronze (1000m and 500m respectively) to the 13-thousand medal haul Team Canada managed to pilage from Poznan. Respect to all of Team Canada, much thanks to our coaches, and Bainer and Bernie for keeping us logistically and muscularly in check. Congrats to everyone who raced, but especially Gabriel Beauchesne-Sevigny for his 2 Golds and a Silver in distances ranging from 200m (a 38second race) to the 5000m (over 20minutes)... you're a dynamo. AND, an engineer! Felicitations mec.

Now I am home in Toronto, eager to get back on the water and up north for some cabin time. I have a summer reading list, some fun travel plans and some new challenges ahead.  As my friend Kurt always used to write: "You are what you pretend to be, so be careful about who you pretend to be".  I'm going to carry on pretending to be a happy K2 paddler with lots of great friends and teammates and some fun races coming up for the time being.  See you on the water, friends!

(pictured above, Brady Reardon of Burly Decal and Sign and Adam van Koeverden celebrate their silver in K2 1000m with smiles and flowers)