VANDEN GRAD JACKSON LOOKS TO ’21 OLYMPICS
Team USA Vacaville native hopes to compete in surf kayaking
Vacaville native and 2010 Vanden High grad Renae Jackson has come a long way in the water since working at a city of Vacaville pool as a lifeguard at age 17.
Jackson, now 27, was selected last year to represent Team USA in surf kayaking at the World Championships and the Pan American Championships. Both were qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Team USA had to finish in the top six at the World Championships in Hungary last August or No. 1 in the Pan American Championships (which include all Olympic events) this spring in Brazil.
The Team USA women did not qualify in August in the K4 (fourperson kayak) 500-meter race, so the only hope for Jackson and her teammates was to finish first in the Pan American Games.
“This winter I trained in Australia focusing on the K1 (oneperson kayak) and then with two-time Olympic gold medalist Krisztina Zur from Hungary when I came back to the States. So I felt a lot of improvements and was really looking forward to competing.”
Her hopes were dashed with the cancellation of the Pan American Games due to the coronavirus, followed by the quashing of the 2020 Olympics for the same reason.
Unselfishly, however, Jackson said she is happy about the postponement of the Olympic Games until 2021.
“There was no fair way to qualify after all of the qualification events were canceled, “she said.
She expanded on those views in this social media post:
“While the world shut down, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) continued to make a strong stance that the games would go on. Yet the premise of the Olympics is to qualify under fair conditions.
“As Olympic qualifier and team selection events across multiple sports were canceled, there was no way to fairly select the remaining 43 percent of countries/athletes that had yet to qualify. The decision as to which countries
would get the remaining spots was put up to each sport’s international governing body.
“It was also unfair that I was able to train while those in Italy, Spain, France, South America and plenty of other countries were forced to stay inside their homes for weeks.
“Drug testing was scaled back due to government restrictions and lockdowns, and many athletes were conflicted on whether or not they should self-quarantine for their own health.
“In a survey of Team USA Athletes, I was one of 93 percent that supported postponing the 2020 Olympics. I wouldn’t say that any of us are ‘happy’ about it…it’s a huge sacrifice…but the world needs to heal and it needed to be done. I am thankful that the IOC decided to demonstrate leadership to the world during a difficult time by postponing the Olympic games, and I am especially thankful for countries like Canada and Australia, who were the first to take a bold stance in the matter.”
The same summer she was a lifeguard at the Vacaville pool, Jackson started surfing in Santa Cruz, fell in love with the ocean and relocated to Southern California to attend Long Beach State.
She competed on the college’s rowing team and graduated with a degree in exercise science and Spanish. Jackson, who never swam competitively in high school, then became an ocean lifeguard for the Los Angeles County Fire Department and Huntington State Beach.
During her first summer lifeguarding at the ocean, Jackson saw people paddling long, skinny kayaks through the surf. She gave it a try and fell in love with the sport.
She graduated with a master’s degree in kinesiology in 2017 and has been developing in sprint kayaking under the guidance of six-time Olympian
Philippe Boccara,
Over the past four years in both surf lifesaving and sprint kayaking, Jackson has earned four national titles, 14 national medals, two international medals, and has competed at six separate world cup and world championship competitions. Surf lifesaving (surf ski) is a competitive sport which evolved from the training activities of lifesavers at Australian and New Zealand surf beaches,
“What got me into it (sprint kayaking) and surf skiing was the challenge of it,” she said. “It’s so difficult. It’s way, way, way more difficult than it looks. If you watch a sprint kayaker it looks easy. Because you have to have that good technique in order to not fall in.
“It’s all about tapping into my full potential and overcoming challenges… It’s not necessarily winning. It’s being able to know how much can I push myself, how far can I really go. It’s a combination of the challenge as well as the connection with the water and the feeling of the glide on the boat. And in the morning when it’s glassy and you can just see the reflection of the clouds and it looks like you’re paddling on top of clouds and you’re just connected with the water and the glide… There’s really nothing like it.”
Jackson said she will definitely continue training with the goal of qualifying for the Olympics next year.
She has still been able to train at Huntington Harbour and Newport Beach in Southern California, although she suspects they may be shut down soon.
With all the gyms closed, she does her weight training at home.
She completed her social media post this way:
“The 2021 Olympic Flame will forever serve as a reminder that our world is stronger together and it is through difficult times that we have the ability to bounce back stronger than ever before.”