A sport apart
Because there is no 2,000-metre course at or near Winnipeg, rowers will compete in Kenora, Ont.
Paul Power is a veteran of the Canada Games, a coach who’s been around the rowing venues since the 1989 Saskatoon event. So he’s got an idea of what the Games are about.
And he agrees his rowers, and the other 290-odd rowing athletes in these 2017 Winnipeg Games, will be missing out on a big part of the Canada Games experience this week.
That’s because rowing is not being staged in Winnipeg, but in Kenora, Ont., about a twohour drive east, down the Trans Canada Highway.
Rabbit Lake will be the site of Canada Games rowing because Winnipeg does not have a nearby 2,000-metre facility on which to host the sport. When Winnipeg played host to the 1999 Pan American Games, rowing was held on Manitoba’s Minnedosa
Lake, about a two-hour drive west of Winnipeg.
The athletes in Kenora will be housed in a local school, in a mini Athletes Village.
The Newfoundland and Labrador rowers arrived in Winnipeg on a charter flight Thursday morning, but instead of bunking down at the Athletes Village on the University of Manitoba campus, they were instead put up in a hotel.
Friday night, they marched out with the rest of Team Newfoundland and Labrador for the opening ceremonies at the Bell MTS Place, but were placed on a bus after for the late-night, early-morning drive to Kenora.
“Not being at the Village, not watching the other sports with other kids from Newfoundland, yes, they’re missing out on the experience,” Power said.
“They’re only getting to the opening ceremonies. That’s it. It’s really too bad.”
The Canada Games rowing competition has been staged on smaller lakes. At the 2005 Games in Regina, Sask., rowing was held on Wascana Lake, on a shorter course than the standard 2,000 metres.
Power understands where Rowing Canada is coming from. It’s about athlete development, which means rowing has to be conducted on a 2,000-metre course.
“You’re not getting ready for the big picture rowing on a shorter course,” he said. “I get that.”
But what about 2025, when the Summer Games are scheduled for St. John’s?
Quidi Vidi Lake, home of rowing for the 1977 Canada Games, is not 2,000 metres.
“So what will they do, move it to Placentia?” Power asks. “There’ll be a holy war if it’s not at Quidi Vidi.”
Power has eight rowers at these Games – five boys and three girls. While rowing is an under-21 sport, Power has gone young. All eight are eligible for the next Canada Games in Ontario four years from now.
These Games are also very special to Power, since his two boys, 16-year-old Mark and 14-year-old Zachary, are both on the team.
“It lets me stay involved a little bit more,” he said.
One thing Power won’t be involved in this year is the Royal St. John’s Regatta. For years, there have been sliding seat crews in the fixed-seat Regatta, but things changed with the 2017 Games where rowing is a Week 1 sport.
“We’ve always been in Week 2, which has allowed our teams to row in the Regatta, and then go to the Games,” he said. “It was always a great buildup for us.
“Actually, this is the first time I’ve been to an opening ceremonies since 1989.”
The rowing competition in Kenora doesn’t get under way until Monday.