LILIANNE PAGÉ
Lilianne Pagé. Ottawa Rowing Club, Ottawa River, Sept. 13, 2016.
“Rowing is my thing. I started in my first year at the University of Ottawa. When I came to the university, I knew I wanted to be involved in some kind of a sport, and so I looked at what they had and saw that there was a novice program — basically you don’t need any experience and they teach you to do everything, from scratch.
“With most sports, when you enter university, you need to be kind of the top of your highschool level to enter the sport. I was a cross-country runner in high school, but they were running shorter distances than what I was looking to get into. So I thought, ‘Why not look for a new sport?’ I always enjoyed being on the water. So I came and tried out and haven’t looked back since. It’s been nine years.
“Rowing is a sport of contrast. It’s about power and strength, but it’s also very much about grace and finesse. Even the stroke itself is broken up into two different
parts: the drive phase, where you’re trying to accelerate your blade through the water, and then the recovery phase, where you’re basically trying to relax as much as possible to let the boat run out. And I think the sport is very unique in that way.
“And then also the team aspect of this sport. It’s different than any other sport in that you have to work as a team right from the word go. As soon as you come down to the boathouse, it takes everyone to put the coach boat in the water, it takes everyone to carry the boat from the boathouse down to the dock. When you’re on the water, you have to be completely in unison with each other. If one person is not rowing with the rest of the group, you’re not really going to go anywhere. So it’s kind of like the ultimate team sport, but at the same time, it is very individual in that you can push yourself to become a better athlete.
“And I get to see the sunrise every single day. Every single morning. And sometimes you take that for granted, but then you realize that some people don’t see the sunrise ever. And I think we have some of the best water here in Canada to row on, on the Ottawa River. We could row all the way to Montreal, if we wanted to.”
Will the Republicans seriously reverse Obama’s legacy on public lands? Nothing should surprise.
ANDREW COHEN. See column on page A9