What is there to say? The event at BP was, wow, ups and downs for sure. We all felt for Adam. To see him apologize for not winning gold? As if this one result changes how anyone feels about him as an athlete and as a person. He is universally respected, and more importantly, liked by pretty much everyone who has met him. Further, Adam van Koeverden changed the vocabulary of Canadian athletes. "I'm here to win a gold medal." instead of "I'm just happy to be here." (not that any athletes actually feel that way, it's just how Canadians have been taught to express themselves). When Adam said that 4 years ago, an outsider might have thought it was arrogance but Adam is not arrogant. Adam is a professional - confident and consistent. None of us has ever seen him race any other way. All he's done is prove that every person has a bad race in them.
Negative comments can only come from people who don't understand what it takes - have never pushed themselves physically and mentally to be the best. We've never doubted Adam because we have no reason to. Just as we have no reason to doubt that he'll be prepared to put down his best 500m race tonight. Tessa Oldershaw expressed how we all felt, "We're not disappointed in Adam, we're disappointed for him." and Tom Hall expanded on it, ""Adam never will have anything to apologize for in the world of canoe-kayak, that's for sure because he is a stand-alone athlete who is arguably one of the best kayakers in the history of the sport."

I can't help but wonder if Tim Brabants and his coach analysed their previous match-ups at world cups and worlds and decided to change strategy. If that's the case, it sure worked perfectly. Adam usually gets out front and Brabants paces off of Adam, hoping to take him in the final 250. This has worked in the past and the two have swapped gold and silver in the 1000m a few times. This time Brabants got out front with a high stroke rate. None of us thought he could keep it up and Adam would pass him easily in the second half of the race. We thought Adam was trying a new strategy, let Brabants set the pace and burn himself out. However, with 250 to go it started to sink in that Adam was fading. Fast. There was silence as we watched him slip backwards out of the camera frame and when the CBC commentator grabbed him post-race. When he apologized, I heard people in Boston Pizza murmuring responses of "No Adam, don't ." But as soon as he was done, everyone started cheering and clapping for him again. I'll be interested in seeing what Adam has to say about what happened when he's done racing.

As bad as I felt for Adam (don't know if it's a mom thing or a human thing - you just want to take away their pain), I didn't get that teary feeling. I did, though, as we watched Tom Hall race and it became apparent that he was going to take the bronze!! Another canoe-kayak medal for Canada! He had an amazing, epic race and it looked like he might have pulled something because he was limping on his way up to the podium. I wouldn't be surprised because he certainly put everything he had into that race. So great to see him up there on the podium. It's incredible what he's accomplished this year.



The K4 guys did really well and the C2 was 6th - first-time Olympians all so they should be really proud of their results.




Larry has forwarded his latest blog, posted this morning right after the races...his is the last word, "It proves he's human"