Growing up, Katie Vincent dreamed of becoming an Olympic champion.
But for the best female canoeists, the Olympics were just that — a dream. Women trained just as hard as men to be the best at their sport, putting in just as many hours and making just as many sacrifices, but the pinnacle wasn’t the same.
Until Tokyo 2020, only men got to compete in canoe events at the Olympics. That’s when women’s events were added, and the Olympic canoe/kayak program became gender equal.
Even without her sport on the Olympic program, Vincent chased her dream, believing somehow, some way, that she would get there. On Saturday, it came true.
With her win in the C-1 200 metres Vincent not only became an Olympic champion, but she wrote her name in the record book with a world-best time of 44.12 seconds. She bested a mark set in 2018 by her former Canadian teammate Laurence Vincent Lapointe, who Vincent teamed up with to win bronze in the doubles race in Tokyo.
Vincent also became the first Canadian women to win gold in canoe-kayak.
WATCH | Vincent makes Canadian history:
Katie Vincent of Mississauga, Ont., claims the gold medal in the women’s canoe sprint C1 200-metre final at Paris 2024 with an Olympic record time of 44.12. Canada establishes a new record for gold (eight) and total medals (25) at a non-boycotted Summer Games. Sophia Jensen of Chelsea, Que., finished sixth in the final.
Inside her hotel room on Saturday morning, a day after winning a career-second Olympic C-2 500m bronze with new partner Sloan MacKenzie, Vincent knew she had a little more to give. While an Olympic bronze medal is a big achievement, Vincent decided two was enough.
“I woke up this morning and just wanted to do my best and put down something to be really proud of,” she said.
The 28-year-old from Mississauga has raced in the C-1 200m her whole career.
But never has she gone as fast as she did on Saturday morning, coming up clutch on the biggest stage when it mattered the most.
Vincent, who’s always shined in the second half of races, dug her deepest in the final 50 metres.
She crossed the finish line at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in a photo finish with American Nevin Harrison. For a minute — maybe the longest minute they’ve both ever experienced — it wasn’t clear who won gold. Either way, Vincent knew she’d upgraded from bronze.
It wasn’t until she saw Canada appear on the leader board that Vincent raised her arms in celebration. She won by one-100th of a second. Less than one stroke, the tiniest bit of extra effort through exhaustion, separated becoming an Olympic champion from being oh-so-close in second.
WATCH | Vincent on winning Olympic gold:
Katie Vincent of Mississauga, Ont., spoke with CBC Sports after winning Canada’s eighth gold medal and 25th medal overall at Paris 2024, both national records for a non-boycotted Summer Olympic Games.
“It was an incredible race,” Vincent told CBC’s Kwabena Oduro after the race.
“I think we both showed the level of our sport and showed that it’s more than capable of being an Olympic sport.”
Athletes getting faster
Less than a second separated first from last place in the final, which Vincent described as one of the most “incredible” races she’s been a part of over the last decade.
During that time, the competitors on the circuit have pushed each other further and further, reaching new heights. Still young on the Olympic program, one can imagine how far the sport will go in the future.
“44.1 [seconds] was a dream seven or eight years ago,” Vincent said.
“We were winning [with] times of 46, and then it got down to 45, and then slowly it got lower and lower. We’re approaching a 43.3 area, with the right day, and it’s just a credit to how hard all these girls are working all over the world.”
In her first Olympic final, 22-year-old Canadian Sophia Jensen finished sixth.
She’ll go home without a medal, but that doesn’t tell the full story of what it meant for her to cross that finish line, and the journey it took to get there.
“Not everyone knows the work that goes into being an Olympic athlete,” an emotional Jensen, who is from Chelsea, Que., told Oduro through tears after the race.
“It’s so much sacrifice. So much dedication. So much of people telling you, you can’t do it. So being here feels really, really good.”
A bright future
Jensen’s Olympic story is just beginning.
“This is not the end for me,” she said. “I have a lot more to give, and I will be so much better the next time you see me.”
She’s not the only one. Vincent’s partner in the C-2 500m, 22-year-old MacKenzie, will leave her first Olympic Games with a bronze medal.
Eight years ago, the Nova Scotian took a picture with Vincent as a teen who was just starting her career.
A few years later, after Vincent Lapointe retired, they paired up.
In their first World Cup together, they didn’t even make the final. But two-and-a-half years later, they were on the Olympic podium. A photo finish decided bronze and silver in the doubles race, too, with the Canadians ultimately finishing 0.06 seconds behind the two Ukrainian paddlers.
“That’s a credit to Sloan’s improvement and her hard work, and everything she’s done for the last two years for this moment,” Vincent told CBC Sports’ Anastasia Bucsis.
“I’ve been right there with her the whole way. It’s ups and downs for sure, but we got to celebrate with a medal and I think that shows our team’s work and Sloan’s hard work as well.”
When Vincent won her first Olympic medal, there were no fans to cheer her on.
This time, she got to paddle in front of a loud crowd that included friends and family, who she planned to celebrate with on Saturday. They’ve been with her as she worked toward a dream that might have seemed far off years ago, through broken arms and bumps along the way, to gold.
Back in Canada, paddlers from the Mississauga Canoe Club huddled around their phones to watch Vincent’s race on Saturday morning, just before taking to the water for their own provincial championship competition.
Vincent’s journey began at their club when she was 10, and now they can say they got to watch her become an Olympic champion.
“It’s really definitely helped us today to know someone from our own club, our own country, can be the best in the world,” head coach Doug Tutty said.
The young women in that club now have an Olympic path to follow, after Vincent paved the road.
