Niagara well-represented on Canada’s Olympic rowing team
Governor Simcoe grad and Ridley Graduate Boat Club member Morgan Rosts has been named as an alternate for Canada’s Olympic rowing team.
Canada’s rowing team at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics will have a distinct Niagara flavour.
Kristen Kit, a 32-year-old St. Catharines native and St. Catharines Rowing Club member, will be the coxie in the women’s eight. Morgan Rosts, a 24-year-old Jordan native and Ridley Graduate Both Club member, is one of three women’s alternates. Luke Gadsdon, a 24-year-old Hamilton native and former Brock rower, has been selected for the men’s four. Also on the men’s four is 27-year-old Burnaby, B.C., native Jakub Buczek, a St. Catharines Rowing Club member. Named to the coaching staff was Terry Paul, who coached at Brock University in the 1980s.
Kit, who rowed at the university level with the University of British Columbia, guided Canadian women’s eight to silver medals at the 2017 and 2018 world championships. In 2019, she coxed the eight to fourth at the worlds. In 2016, Kit was a member of Canada’s legs, trunk and arms mixed coxed four that won a bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Rosts, a Governor Simcoe graduate and former University of Virginia scholarship rower, won under-23 world championship gold medals in the eight in 2017 and 2018 and had a 12th-place finish in a four at a 2019 World Cup event in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In 2019, she made her first appearance at the senior worlds as a spare for Canada in the eight and four in Ottensheim, Austria.
Gadsdon was a member of the Canadian men’s eight at the 2018 and 2019 under-23 world championships. He is a graduate of Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton.
Buczek was a member of Canada’s men’s eight that placed eighth at the 2019 and 2019 world championships. In 2015, he was part of a four that rowed to a bronze medal at the under-23 worlds.
Paul was the coxie for the Canadian men’s eight that won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics. The Brock University physical education graduate has been a national team coach for more than 20 years.
The 29 athletes were chosen for Team Canada based on their performances at the 2019 world championships, the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta this May in Switzerland and a series of internal assessment camps. The 10 Canadian boats make up the largest Olympic rowing team since the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Canada won six medals in Atlanta.
“Rowing Canada Aviron is truly inspired by the team’s unrelenting commitment and tenacity to the goal and dream of representing Canada at the 2020 Olympic Games,” RCA’s high performance director Iain Brambell said in a press release. “The postponement of the 2020 Games has been a taxing and trying reality for all athletes and staff within the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Camp. We are immensely proud to name such talented rowers across the 10 crews.
“On behalf of Rowing Canada Aviron, I would also like to extend an enormous acknowledgement to all the coaches, families, friends and support staff who have contributed in making these journeys to Tokyo a reality.”
Rowing will be held July 23 to July 30 at the Sea Forest Waterway.
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