By Philip O’Connor
PARIS (Reuters) – Reigning Olympic champion Nevin Harrison showed she is back to her best after a period of injury and poor mental health, blasting into the semi-finals of the women’s canoe single 200m event in a time of 45:70 seconds at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Tokyo gold medal-winner told Reuters she had battled hard to put her physical and mental struggles behind her, and she was full of energy and positivity after her performance.
“The last two years have been really, really hard as an athlete. I mean, battling injury and a lot of difficulties within kind of my NGB (national governing body), within Team USA, within my coaching, it just seemed like every single odd was stacked up against me these last couple years,” she said.
Harrison attributes the turnaround in her fortunes to her inner circle and her new coach, Joe Harper.
“Within the last year I found a new coach who is the most wonderful person on the planet, who supported me in so many ways. I think my life just kind of came together. I have a wonderful family and wonderful, wonderful boyfriend, wonderful friends. They’ve all just loved me through all of it,” she said.
While kneeling in the boat and paddling with one oar, a sense of physical equilibrium is just as important in the quick-fire 200m races, where there is little room for error.
“It’s super-easy to lose your balance in such a precarious position, you’ll see paddles go on the air, or someone might wiggle a little bit and that’s the best way to know that someone is maybe not on their game,” Harrison said.
“That’s going to happen to everyone in a race but the biggest thing that I think any competitor needs is to be able to recover from that within a stroke — you might mess up one stroke, and you’re going to blow the race unless you get back to your rhythm.”
With her life and her paddling seemingly in harmony, Harrison is enjoying being back at the Olympics, despite the increased competition.
“I do notice all these girls, they’re all so much closer now, they’re all going faster, they all have fantastic programs, fantastic coaching, and you really can see it with just the talent and everything,” she said.
Regardless of whether or not she wins a medal, Harrison is delighted to have her support network behind her in Paris.
“That lonely feeling has gone away, and that’s kind of beyond what I could have hoped for,” she said.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Clare Fallon)
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