READY TO RACE
Strong outing expected when Trent University rower Trevor Jones makes Olympic debut
Friends call Trevor Jones “InTrevor” as a playful pun on the word introvert.
It’s not a tag he quarrels with and perhaps explains why he’s taken to single sculls rowing.
But don’t be fooled by the quiet exterior, inside lurks a “dark side” which serves him well, says his first rowing coach. More on that later.
Around 7:30 p.m. Thursday (8:30 a.m. Friday Tokyo time) Jones, 23, will be the first single men’s sculler to represent Canada at the Olympics since Derek Porter placed fourth in 2000.
Born in Montreal, Jones’ mother, Cammie Jaquays, moved to Burleigh Falls when he was a baby and raised him and younger sibling Charlie as a single parent. He played goalie as a youngster for the Douro Dukes and Lakefield Chiefs minor hockey teams while attending Ridpath Public School, Lakefield Intermediate and Lakefield College School.
Long-time LCS athletic director Ian Armstrong has known Jones since he started junior kindergarten with his daughter, Alexa.
They were friends growing up and Jones has been to Armstrong ’s home numerous times. Jones was also LCS’s goalie where he exhibited a trait which serves him well as a rower.
“He was a real battler,” Armstrong said.
Jones, now six-foot-eight, was “all arms and legs,” recalled Armstrong.
“Like any young goalie who was that tall he had his challenges, but his heart, his work ethic, he was a real battler in goal. He was always a joy to coach.”
Seeing him grow up with his daughter, Armstrong said, “Trevor was a very kind, softspoken, honest and loyal friend.”
While at LCS, Jones got a membership to the Trent Athletics Centre where Trent’s varsity development coach Garth Myles introduced him to Carol Love. Love was operating Rowing Canada’s Row To Podium program at Trent looking for athletes who fit a physical profile she could develop into Olympic rowers. Jones had never rowed but he was tested by Love and failed to meet the standards for entry.
He had the height and arm span but not yet the strength or endurance. She encouraged him to join the Peterborough Rowing Club and to row at school.
It took Jones three rounds of testing before Love accepted him into Row To Podium in Grade 12.
She recognized immediately he was special. No matter what she threw at him he wanted more.
“He took to the technical side very well. He learned to move a boat better than anybody moved that single,” Love said.
“He’s a threat at these Olympics even at his young age because he has great skill.”
He’s not yet as strong and mature as some of his competition, but he also combines skill with a rare determination Love has seen both in training and racing.
“He is one of those few that will go, as we used to say, to the dark side in that last 500 metres,” she said.
“He will push his body beyond what a normal person would. When you start to see those things you realize he has something a normal person could never achieve or want to go there.”
As an LCS rowing coach, Susan Armstrong, Ian’s wife, remembers Jones riding his bike from home to school to Trent and back at Love’s urging. She saw his progress take off under Love.
Jones enrolled at Trent to continue training with Love while rowing for the university.
As a relative unknown in 2017, and as one of the youngest competitors at 19, Jones burst onto the international scene by winning the single sculls gold medal at the World Rowing Under-23 Championships, a title he defended successfully in 2018.
“It was amazing for everyone,” said Susan Armstrong, “especially because he was here in Peterborough training and not training out west or in London (at national training centres).”
It wasn’t long after his first gold medal Jones moved to Victoria, B.C. to train full-time with the national team.
He tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the Tokyo Games in a double at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. He was coming off surgery to repair compartment syndrome in his forearm which he rowed through in winning his 2018 gold medal.
Rowing Canada returned him to a single and in May Jones finished second at World Rowing’s final Olympic qualifying regatta earning the last Olympic berth.
Jaquays has watched her son’s progress marvelling at the support he’s had and his determination.
“For any athlete there are dayto-day challenges,” she said.
“There are training challenges, going out when it’s minus three degrees and trying to row when its freezing cold and windy and you’re breaking ice on the water.
“There are lots of challenges and hurdles and stress you deal with as an athlete. I have respect for Trevor for his drive, his passion, his commitment, his setting and achieving of goals which has brought him to this point.”