Viinberg deserves this Olympic silver
REGINA — For just over six minutes on Thursday, Rachelle Viinberg and her Canadian rowing teammates were front and centre during a medal-winning performance.
But the manner in which the Regina-born Viinberg handled everything behind the scenes, leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, is even more impressive.
So much has changed — her surname, for starters — since Rachelle de Jong rowed for Canada at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Shortly after she represented her home and native land in the quadruple women’s sculls, she received a marriage proposal from Alex Viinberg.
The proposal was received, and accepted, on the Great Wall of China.
The couple exchanged vows in September of the following year. Rachelle’s father, Hielke de Jong, was in the final stages of a battle with leukemia when the ceremony took place. He died in December of 2009.
Viinberg found the perfect way to pay tribute to her dad earlier this year, when the Canadian women’s eights team won a gold medal at a World Cup event. The race took place on Father’s Day, when she said: “This one’s for you, Dad.’’
And, of course, she called her mother — as she did every day while June Mayhew de Jong was battling, and eventually conquering, Stage 3 colon cancer. She was at the Eton Dorney Rowing Centre in Windsor, England on Thursday to share in the celebration of an Olympic silver medal in women’s eights.
“Her goal was fulfilled,’’ the 33- year- old Viinberg told the Leader-Post during a rare respite on Thursday. “She knew before I did that I’d be on the team and I’d get a medal.
“She said that six months ago. I guess her guardian angels told her, and they seem to be working for her in more ways than one.’’
During the bout with cancer, Viinberg and her mother grew even closer while showing that the distance that separated them, while considerable, was not insurmountable.
Viinberg was in London, Ont., training with the national team, while her mom was in Regina undergoing chemotherapy.
“It must have been very frustrating for her, because she’s a very tender-hearted, hands-on person,’’ her mother reflected recently.
Viinberg has become all too accustomed to separation from her loved ones. Alex Viinberg lives and works in Toronto, which is a 2 1/2-hour drive from London, Ont. For most of their time as a married couple, Alex and Rachelle have seen one another only on weekends.
But those are the sacrifices that must be made if one is to excel at the Olympics — as Viinberg did on Thursday when she helped her team challenge an American squad that has not lost in six years.
Viinberg absolutely beamed on the dock, and when she received the silver medal from Dick Pound. That moment, so precious, was 23 years in the making.
Rachelle was 10 years old when she told her mother that she wanted to go to the Olympics. At the time, nobody could have imagined that the goal would be attained as a rower, even though she was entirely at home in the water.
“It started with 10 years of swimming, from when I was eight to 18,’’ Viinberg recalled from England on Thursday. “I always wanted to be an Olympian. It didn’t work out in swimming, so I picked rowing. It has been 15 years, since 1997 when I started rowing, to get to this point. The journey has been up and down. I’m so ecstatic to end on this note. It has just been quite the ride.’’
After ending her swimming career, Viinberg dabbled in cross-country skiing before a friend who was familiar with the Regina Rowing Club suggested: “You should try rowing, because you use the same muscles in rowing as you do in swimming.’’
As her mother put it, “she never looked back.’’
But you have to look back to truly appreciate the entirety of Viinberg’s accomplishments and the extent of the sacrifices that were made with a medal in mind.
Viinberg was actually on hiatus from the sport for one year following Beijing as she completed her degree at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto. She subsequently returned to rowing in 2010, when she helped Canada’s women’s eights team earn a silver medal at the world championships.
Once again, the fuse was ignited. The decision was made to focus on another Olympics, even if those aspirations were often incompatible with her personal and professional lives. With the full support of her husband, she set her sights on the 2012 Olympics. On Thursday, an appreciative sporting nation set its sights on her.
“I don’t regret my journey at all,’’ Viinberg said after sifting through a deluge of congratulatory messages that arrived after her medalwinning race. “I’m just glad I held on for another four years to have my Olympic dream come to fruition.
“I was going to retire last quadrennial, which I was planning on doing. I probably would have left rowing with a bit of an empty heart. Now I can leave pretty proud of what I’ve done.’’
The receipt of a coveted Olympic medal represented an appropriately happy ending for Viinberg, whose attention will now turn to starting a family and a ca- reer as a naturopathic doctor .
he time has come to establish new priorities and celebrate other aspects of her life, even when the public’s focus on her athletic achievements has never been so intense or congratulatory.
As if by script, Rachelle Viinberg is leaving the athletic realm at her peak — with a silver medal, and a heart of gold.