Unsinkable by Silken Laumann

Author:Silken Laumann
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781443419093
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2013-07-20T12:00:00+00:00

SINGLE SCULLER

My innocent belief in the power and authority of the National Team training schedule proved well-founded. It overrode all my self-doubts so that I did make the National Team in 1983, on my first attempt. Then, in the summer of 1984, when I was nineteen, I fulfilled my most cherished dream: to compete in the Olympics.

In the Canadian trials for single sculls, Daniele had been positioned to win. I was her closest competitor, and was desperate to beat her. In a phone call to our dad, Daniele said she wasn’t sure she wanted to race because she didn’t want to defeat me. Her words still echo in my head: “I love winning, but I hate beating people.”

Apparently, she didn’t hate it too much. She soundly outpaced everyone in those trials, with me coming in second. Rowing Canada, in its wisdom, paired us to compete in Los Angeles in the women’s doubles. We were horrified. Both of us were individualists in every way. We figured we might kill each other.

Daniele may have been the better rower, with more overall strength, but I probably had a bit more dynamic power. While she was by far the more experienced tactician, I was certainly the more competitive one. In the lead-up to the Games, we had many sisterly quarrels.

Daniele would say, “Stop it! We’re supposed to be rowing light.”

“I am rowing lightly!”

“No, you’re not, so stop it. You’re making me look like I’m not pulling.”

“I am not. You’re just not pulling on purpose!”

The Olympics were held in Los Angeles that year. Because I’d been rowing only since 1982, everything that had happened during my accelerated buildup seemed brand new. Now, with the Games in the epicentre of show business, I was having both the Olympic experience and the Hollywood experience at the same time. Our residence was drenched in the pastel colours chosen by our hosts—melon, aqua, mint. After deboarding the bus at Lake Casitas, where our races were to be held, we walked across a bridge of floating docks to a spectacularly beautiful athletes’ area with painted racks for every boat, a food court for post-workout snacks and several dipping pools to cool off in. The welcome centre featured video games along with big bowls of M&M’s and Snickers—I felt like I was a kid in a candy store. On my first day, I was so afraid the bowls would empty that I filled a bread bag with the candy. The whole setup was surreal, like our very own Disney World.

My dad and brother had driven from Canada on a father–

son road trip to watch Daniele and me race—it was for Joerg that I had hoarded the M&M’s and Snickers. Both were very excited, especially when we gave them a tour of the Olympic Village, something that wouldn’t be possible now with today’s heightened security. Even then, every athlete had to have an identification pass for the village and boating areas. As the other rowers and I prepared to head for the lake in the wee hours of each morning, one of my biggest stresses became remembering my pass.

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