September 12, 2005
Grand Canal helps launch 'locals' to Olympic gold
BY ROBERT HUGHES
FOR FLORIDA TODAY
INDIAN HARBOR BEACH - The Grand Canal takes paddlers over sheltered waters past stately homes and playful sea life about four miles to the Pineda Causeway -- and, sometimes, on to Olympic glory.
The gold medalists from Athens 2004 in both one-man kayaking events (500 and 1,000 meters) have been training as "locals" here for years.
Adam van Koeverden of Canada and Norway's Erik Larsen were here in the spring with hundreds of paddlers from around the world to renew their friendship and battle for supremacy. Those two won gold by beating the events' reigning world champions as well as each other in the Olympics, successes that have defined their young lives.
They appreciate fully how Brevard's warm water has enabled them to reach their life-long dreams.
"I probably know every meter of that canal," van Koeverden said. "I've spent so much time here, I feel like a local."
The Oakville, Ontario, native estimates he's paddled at least 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) over the years here.
Canadian coach Scott Oldershaw has been taking his teams to The Pines Resort on Banana River Drive for 15 years because, he said, "It's safe: We can use the canal every day, and the (Banana) river when it's not windy. This is a pretty well-known place for paddlers around the world."
Norwegian team coach, Morton Iverson, stated a more obvious reason to be here.
"When we return to Norway," he said, "We still will have to drive the motorboat to cut a way through the ice."
The Pines Resort has been welcoming these athletes from colder climes for 20 years.
Debbie Poole of the resort's rental office said they reserve half of their 264 units to such temporary renters.
She said they hosted about 610 team members this year. Hungary, Denmark, Sweden, France are among other national teams that come almost every year.
Many American teams also make this their training ground, including a Brown University women's crew team that has won five of the past nine national titles.
But among all the victories these paddling snowbirds have had around the world, none can top van Koeverden and Larsen in Athens.
It's perhaps fitting the two men met and started training together here.
But since Larsen had been on top of the sport for years and van Koeverden was an up-and-comer, it could be argued the Norwegian made a mistake in helping the Canadian become "too" good.
Larsen's coach doesn't see it that way.
"We could see Adam's potential," Norwegian team coach Morton Iverson said. "He'd have gotten there anyway."
Coach Oldershaw said, "It probably helped both of them (to prepare together)."
However, the two didn't train together during the intensity of the year building up to August 2004 at the Olympics -- the event to which they've dedicated their lives.
In Athens, as expected, the two made it through their preliminary competitions without a hitch, setting up face-to-face showdowns in each event.
The longer event, at 1,000 meters, was scheduled first.
Van Koeverden, who felt the longer distance was his better event, took off on his trademark jackrabbit start that put him in the lead for almost half the distance before a familiar face pulled up beside him. He and Larsen battled neck-and-neck for a while before the Norwegian pulled away for the gold and the Canadian had to settle for bronze behind world champion Ben Fouhy of New Zealand in second.
A disappointed Van Koeverden told Canadian TV network CBC Sports after the race, "That's the way it goes when you go out like that. My head was pounding. There's so much pain the last 100 meters, I just can't believe it."
Despite that pain, the athletes had little time to rest as the 500-meter final came the next day.
Again, van Koeverden took the lead from the start, then was being passed before the halfway mark by the world champion of that distance, Nathan Baggaley of Australia.
But unlike the day before, van Koeverden found the strength for a comeback of his own and, according to CBC, finished "well ahead" of Baggaley at the finish.
Showing the tightness of the competition, van Koeverden's "easy" win in one minute, 37.919 seconds put him all of 0.548 seconds ahead of runner-up Baggaley, who was a scant 0.080 seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.
Van Koeverden said that when he turned around after achieving his life's dream, "The first person I saw was Erik (Larsen) waving at me."
Larsen offered congratulations despite finishing out of the medals in the 500. The Norwegian would later come through again for his country with a bronze in kayak doubles.
In Norway, the paddling sports get a lot of attention because its team members take home more medals than their compatriots in any other summer sport.
In Canada, Van Koeverden has become an even bigger sports name.
Being the first Canadian man to win two medals in one Olympics since the disgraced sprinter Donovan Bailey in 1996, he was selected to carry the Maple Leaf flag in the closing ceremonies in Athens.
Later in the year, he was voted Canada's most outstanding athlete in 2004. (An athlete more familiar to Americans, record-setting pitcher Eric Gagne, finished second in voting for the honor in 2003.)
Yet, Van Koeverden said his life hasn't changed much since he became a Olympic hero.
"Mostly, I've had to do a lot of this. . . Deal with the media, that is," he said. "And that's cool."
He's also been making a lot of appearances and speeches, which he enjoys most when he visits schools.
"I really like that, because I remember how important athletes were to me when I was a kid," he said. "It's one of the best opportunities to inspire kids."
Despite his anonymity in Brevard, however, some of that inspiration seems to have rubbed off locally.