Olympic post mortem: Kristen Kit
Team Canada’s Kristen Kit is shown on the podium during the 2024 Paris Olympics Games in France on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. Photo by Kevin Light/COC.
The 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games will be remembered by Kristen Kit for a lot more than the silver medal she won in the women’s eight at the rowing venue at Stade Nautique de Vaires-Sur-Marne.
The 36-year-old became engaged to Izak Brussow, a member of Canada’s over-30 men’s team at this summer’s touch rugby World Cup, during her time in Paris.
“It was pretty cool,” said Kit, who won a gold medal in the women’s eight at the last Olympics. “It was after our friends and family event at Team Canada House. We ended up at the Ireland House and he asked me there on the dance floor. It was great.”
It was also great when she crossed the finish line as an Olympic silver medalist.
“I had a sense of relief and gratitude because this is my fourth Games (two Olympics and two Paralympics) and being an older athlete I have had so much support from family, friends, coaches and people from Rowing Canada who have really helped me,” the St. Catharines Rowing Club member said. “It is not an easy thing to do to go to your fourth Games and win a medal because at certain points, there are opportunities and decisions you have to make along the way.”
She has received a ton of support from the St. Catharines rowing community and the community at large.
“I have had so much support over the years and especially at these Games. I am pretty lucky and having a race like that was definitely at the top of my mind.”
The relief she felt in Paris was much different than the relief she felt in Tokyo where she wasn’t as equipped to deal with the pressure to perform.
“I had hoped that coming off of Tokyo where we were Olympic champions that we would have been more dominant the last three years and that was part of the reason why I wanted to come back. I wanted to be part of team that we could build off of Tokyo but it was a little bit more rebuilding than I had bargained for.”
The eight’s results were indicative of that and the boat’s results were up and down over the last three years.
“To be quite frank, we barely qualified for the Olympics last summer at the world rowing championships. We got the last qualifying spot but we weren’t really competitive with the front of the race. It was a pretty stressful place to be in and it wasn’t for the lack of not having the right athletes.”
Kit was uncertain a silver medal race was in the cards in Paris.
“There were a lot of stars that aligned and first and foremost it was the women. A lot of credit is due to them.”
Throughout the entire process, the 2016 Paralympic bronze medalist was battling through a myriad of health issues.
“I was competing in road cycling and I had a couple of pretty serious concussions leading into the last Olympics and after the last Olympics. My head injuries have had a pretty big impact on my life and I had the sense of relief after we competed because I didn’t know with my health whether I would end up on an Olympic start line again.”
Kit feels the eight was able to go from a pretender to contender thanks to contributions from athletes inside and outside the boat.
“When we came back from the world championships, it was a very sobering world. A lot of Canadian boats didn’t qualify and we only qualified the women’s eight on the open weight side.”
It turned out to be the reality check that everyone in the boat needed.
Well-respected coach Carol Love, who left the program in November of 2023, was able to motivate athletes to return to the training centre and get them excited to be a part of the national rowing team. Tom Morris took over as coach for the last 10 months and helped the women come together as a program while making improvements on the technical and tactical side of things. He also helped the boat become a collective rather than a group of individuals.
Things began looking up for the Canadians when they won gold at the Lucerne World Cup in May. In Lucerne, the crew was focused on the first 750 metres of the race instead of the final outcome.
“We wanted to prove that we might have what it took to win the Olympics again. We got through the first 750 metres and we weren’t leading but I could just feel this energy in the boat. It was an energy I hadn’t felt in awhile and it was pretty cool because it was all about the collective and working with and for each other. We finally had it again that we would sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of the boat.”
Winning in Lucerne was a huge and much-needed morale boost.
“Doing that gave us a sense of confidence that we brought back into our training in Canada. It was pretty special and it motivated us for the last block going into the Olympics. Going to the Olympics with that sense of purpose and belief was big.”
Kit arrived in Paris recharged as a coxie.
“Tom Harris helped me love the sport and at the Olympics and even leading into the Olympics, I was really enjoying training and I am not someone who enjoys training. My body is old and it hurts.”
She was able to find peace in the daily grind of training.
“I was looking forward to our rows and runs and this is something I hadn’t felt in a long time.”
She felt happy in Paris.
“There was a lot of pressure and stress and I have happy snapshots in my brain of pushing off the dock or challenging rows where people were disagreeing and we found a common thread that we could work together on. I look back and I think that we worked really hard.”
Kit was able to overcome her lack of confidence to lead the boat to a silver medal.
“It is very easy to have imposter syndrome as a coxie because you are sitting in a boat asking people to do something you are not actually doing yourself,” she said. “I have struggled with confidence my whole career and I went into the Olympics with a little bit of low confidence.”
One day leading into the heats, her teammates told her that she was the captain of the ship and it wasn’t a democracy. It was a Kitatorship.
“That really gave be a big confidence boost.”
Teammates Kristina Walker and Avalon Wasteneys were crucial in that boost.
“They were really honest with me which I really appreciated. It is hard to be honest with someone with my age, experience and track record. You would assume with all my medals that I would be really confident but I don’t always have confidence or all the answers. When people believe in me, I tend to have a lot more success and more answers. Kristina and Avalon said they believed in me and they brought crew with them. That is going to be with me forever.”
Kit is considering retiring from rowing.
“I’m 36, this was my fourth Games and I have got a lot of medals for Canada. Rowing isn’t my whole identity and I need to make money at some point. We don’t make much money as rowers and with the cost of living going up, it is pretty tough to make ends meet.”
She is not sure if and when she is going to make that decision.
“I am taking time now to come down from the Olympics and be a normal person again and enjoy some time with my fiancé and my dog.”
She plans to be in Niagara for her sister Maegan’s wedding on Sept. 28
“I couldn’t be more excited. I am so pumped for her and so pumped to see all my family and celebrate her marriage.”
