Running Celebrity

Adam van Koeverden, MP

Adam van Koeverden was planning to run this year’s Around the Bay, which was cancelled due to the pandemic. Instead, he set a goal to run 100 miles (161 km) in May. Having achieved that, he set a new goal to run 200 km in June. “Crap, now it’s in print,” he says, with a grin.

With three half-marathons and several 10ks under his belt (including Burlington, Ont.’s Frigid 10k in early March, just before the lockdown began), van Koeverden, better known as the Canadian kayaker who won Olympic gold in the 500m singles event in Athens in 2004, has now made running his main sport. (The kayaker carried the f lag for Canada at the opening ceremonies in Beijing four years later, where he won silver in the same event. He earned another silver in London in 2012, in the 1,000m singles.)

Last October, van Koeverden, who retired from competitive kayaking in 2016, was in the news again when he was elected member of Parliament for Milton, west of Toronto. In addition, he serves as parliamentary secretary to both the minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Youth and the minister of Heritage (where his responsibilities relate to sport).

During a recent 16k loop with van Koeverden, he credited the people he met in sport for his considerable success. “I started kayaking because my mom wanted me to stay out of trouble, not to become a great athlete,” he says, “but the people I met at the Burloak Canoe Club changed the trajectory of my life. Dean Oldershaw, my coach, was patient and spent time with me in the motor boat, reinforcing the things I did well and encouraging me to work on my gaps.”