From Quidi Vidi Lake to the Paris, one Newfoundland man hasn’t forgotten his roots as he coaches Team Canada’s lightweight women’s double sculls duo Jill Moffatt and Jenny Casson. 

Jeremey Ivey of St. John’s, one of Rowing Canada’s national team coaches, is in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games — a journey that began on Newfoundland waters more than two decades ago.

“I started down on Quidi Vidi Lake. So, yeah, that’s where it all began for me,” Ivey told CBC News.

Ivey rowed in eight Royal St. John’s regattas and, in 2001, rowed in the Canada Games. 

“I had a really good experience rowing in Newfoundland and I truly loved it,” he said.

After studying at Memorial University for a year, Ivey received a scholarship for Mercyhurst University in Erie, Penn., and continued his rowing career in the United States.

Studying sports medicine and completing a master’s in exercise and sports studies at Smith College in Massachusetts, Ivey’s goal was to become a coach.

“They call it, in Massachusetts, the coaching masters for people who specifically want to go into coaching,” he said. “When I graduated from grad school, I was able to actually get a national team coaching position with U.S. Rowing.”

From there, Ivey’s career eventually took him to a position with Rowing Canada. As national team coach, Ivey has spent significant time in Europe over the last couple of months as his athletes train for the Olympics. 

“We came over to Europe early, and did a pre-Olympic training camp in Italy. A little bit of the motivation with that was to link up with some other international crews,” he said.

Ivey coached Moffatt and Casson while training alongside Norway and Australia’s national rowing teams.

‘It’s indescribable’

Last year, Rowing Canada brought his team to Paris to visit the site of this year’s Olympics for preparation. Ivey said they knew what to expect in terms of the venue — but being back feels completely different.

“When you see all the Olympic rings and like the Paris signs and everything, I mean, it’s just that special and the amount of adrenalin that it produces amongst the coaches and the athletes, it’s just, like — it’s indescribable,” Ivey said.

Moffatt and Casson row again Wednesday at 7 a.m. NT. And while he will be following the race in a van or watching on a video screen, once it starts, he says, he feels everything an athlete would.

“I get the same adrenalin and, like, the same satisfaction that I used to get from myself winning a rowing race as my athletes do.”

Ivey lives in Victoria — the one in British Columbia, not the one in Newfoundland — but he likes to think he brought a piece of his home province to the Olympic games. 

“My mom and dad are still living in St. John’s and my brother and my whole family. So I always like to think of myself as like a true Newfoundlander. If anyone says, ‘Where are you from?’ I don’t say Victoria,” he said.