‘She was the strongest person on our team’
Peterborough native Walinga remembers fellow Olympic team rower Heddle, who died of cancer Monday
Canada’s 1992 Olympic goldmedal-winning women’s eight still row together 30 years later.
Now there’s an empty seat in the boat.
Kathleen Heddle, who also won two Olympic gold medals in a double with Marnie McBean in 1992 and ’96, succumbed to brain cancer Monday.
“I definitely felt broken,” said Peterborough native Jennifer Walinga, who rowed in the four seat two seats ahead of Heddle.
The crew kept in touch through What’s App, and Heddle messaged Walinga on Sunday night to wish her a Happy Birthday only hours before she died.
“None of us were really expecting this, although we knew she was ill. We thought she would come out like the last bout,” said Walinga, from Victoria, B.C., where she is a professor of communications and culture at Royal Roads University.
Heddle had four separate battles with cancer in the past six years including breast, lymph node and melanoma.
Walinga rowed on the 1988 Olympic eight that placed seventh. Heddle joined the crew the following year.
They improved to fourth at the ’90 world championships, won the ’91 world championship and then took Olympic gold in Barcelona.
“Kathleen was always so quietly in the middle of everything. She sat in the middle of the boat in the six seat and was the strongest person on our team,” Walinga said.
“She was not just strong physically but mentally and emotionally. You’d always kind of look to her as the model of a true athlete. Really grounded.”
From 1989 to ’92, the eight lived and trained together. Members forged a lifelong bond.
“We were like sisters,” Walinga said. “We lived together and trained three times a day.”
Walinga said she’ll never forget Heddle’s laugh.
“She had a very deep laugh, almost a man laugh. It was so cute. She was always pretty quiet and in the background but if you could make her laugh, which I always tried to do — she thought I was such a goofball little kid — she had this big belly laugh.”
In the days leading up to the 1992 Olympics, Walinga suffered an injury and had to withdraw from the eight. It was Heddle who slid up two spots to take her seat.
In 2017, the crew was inducted into the Rowing Canada Hall of Fame.
“We all got together in Vancouver and we went for a row. Once we got in this boat, everybody thought, ‘Oh my gosh. We should do this more often. We should race,’ ” Walinga said.
They decided they would row together again as a masters crew and set their sights on the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. Heddle was undergoing cancer treatments and was unable to participate in 2018 when the crew claimed the gold medal.
Heddle was back in her seat in ’19 when they returned to successfully defend the gold. They’ve raced in several other regattas in British Columbia and Washington state.
“We were planning a race down in Seattle when COVID hit. She was the one who wrote and said, ‘You know, this COVID thing is happening and I’m immunocompromised so I had better not go.’ She had just come out of treatment for her latest battle with cancer,” Walinga said.
Heddle’s husband, Mike Bryden, was also an Olympic rower, so the rowing community is rallying around the family. Walinga said her crew has been reminiscing a lot the past two days.
“I’m sure it will pull us closer together,” she said. “It was always our thing that no matter what happened we always had backup, like that stupid injury I had. We were always fine because we had such depth and we made sure everyone was strong. I feel like it’s the same with this. We draw on our strength and connection.”