Canada’s one-man team
Don’t blink or you might miss the introduction of Canada’s senior men’s team at the 2024 World Rowing Senior, Under 23, and Under 19 Championships (Mega Worlds) being held Aug. 18-25 in St. Catharines.
The entire squad consists of 22-year-old Guelph native Stephen Harris, a Brock rower who will be competing in the lightweight men’s single.
“Currently I am the senior men’s team,” he said, with a laugh. “It feels really weird because I am used to being the young kid. When I came to Brock, most of the guys I rowed with were two or three years older than me. When I would go out west for the under-23s, I would be a young kid.”
Not any more.
“I am training here with the under-23s and I am the old guy and they are referring to me as the old man. I think I have to go open (weight class) and move out west to the training centre so that I am the young kid again just for my mental sanity.”
The men’s double is the only Olympic boat for male lightweights and Harris had aspirations to attempt to qualify in that boat for the Paris Olympics. The process started when he and Emerson Crick competed in the double at the 2024 Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.
“There were discussions with Rowing Canada on depending how that boat performed at Pan Ams we would maybe pursue an opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.”
Unfortunately, a fifth-place finish in Chile stopped the conversation in its tracks.
“We gave it our best go and really fought in the race but we couldn’t convince Rowing Canada and show that we potentially had enough speed to qualify,” he said. “We came in dealing with a bit of injury and sickness and maybe if it was a week earlier it would have been better.”
There are no Canadian men’s boats at the Olympics.
Harris was selected to row for the senior championships at trials held in St. Catharines in early June. He had to win the event and achieve a time standard set by Rowing Canada.
“I didn’t fully understand it but I went out that day and gave everything I had and it was enough.”
The official team announcement was made June 28 but Harris knew he had made the team a few hours after the trials concluded.
“It meant a lot. I was very confident getting off the water and I thought I had definitely got it. And then I found out later I was pretty close to not getting it so there was a little stress afterwards.”
Representing Canada at the worlds in St. Catharines is a big deal for the former two-time Brock male athlete of the year.
“I am not from St. Catharines, I am from Guelph but I have been here for five or six years and this is home now. This is my home course and to race what will likely be my final world championships as a lightweight here on my home course and home water means so much.”
He is not giving any secrets away but agrees there is a home course advantage. He has won three Canada Games golds, three Canadian University Rowing Championships golds and countless Ontario University Athletics golds on the Henley course.
“The water sometimes is very funky and it can be interesting. I do think it will be a bit of an advantage. World Rowing, if you are listening, it’s a little or nothing but I do hope it will be a lot.”
His goals for the worlds aren’t necessarily performance-based but he would love to be in the A final competing for a medal.
“This year, I am not going in with any expectations and it will be more about completing all three levels for myself. I raced at juniors in 2019, I raced in under-23 for two years and now seniors. I have raced every step of the way and it means so much. I want to go out and perform the best I can because last year I didn’t do that. I will be happy if I leave everything out on the water,” said the bronze medalist in the lightweight single at the 2023 under-23 worlds.
He is looking forward to the entire event.
“I love the work that they have done and the island looks so nice with all the updates they are doing. I have friends that I have made from past international events and to see them again is always nice. I am also to excited to see the development of rowing in Canada because I believe we have a junior men’s eight racing at worlds.”
Harris graduated this spring with a degree in economics and is returning to Brock this fall for a masters degree in business economics. He plans to compete one last year for Brock. Going into this year, he has won six OUA gold medals and five CURC golds, three silvers and two bronze medals.
After the university season, his options are to retire from rowing and pick up triathlon, move up to the open weight division or attempt the new ‘coastal’ rowing style.
“All I know is that I am going to eat well after the university season and I’m excited,” he said.
Lightweight rowing is not part of the 2028 Olympics and governing bodies around the world are moving away from it. This May, Rowing Canada’s board of directors passed a motion to discontinue under-19 lightweight rowing and replace it with alternatives at a date still to be determined.
Harris said the decision to take lightweights out of the Olympics hurt when he first heard about it.
“As I have been in the sport longer, I do see the effect it can have on athletes being at weight for so long. I know myself that I was at my required weight from May to November last year and by the end of it I was like ‘I am done. I kind of need a rest.’ It is being done for the health and safety of athletes so it is hard for me to say no when I know it is looking out for people. But it hurts because lightweight rowing at the Olympics is one of the most competitive and diverse events.”
Other Brock rowers competing at the worlds are Connor Dodds (Regina Boat Club), Charles-Etienne Tabet (Club d’Aviron Boucherville) and Riley Watson (Peterborough Rowing Club). They will compete in the under-23 men’s lightweight quad.
