Former Gig Harbor Canoe Team Member An Olympic Favorite

GIG HARBOR, WA - When the Summer Olympics begin in Tokyo later this month (July 23-Aug.8), Gig Harbor might just be associated with a medal winner.

That's because 19-year-old Nevin Harrison, a Seattle native who previously trained with the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak Racing Team, is considered one of the gold-medal favorites in the women's canoe single 200 meters, which will be making its Olympic debut in Tokyo. The event will be held in Tokyo Bay with the finals scheduled for August 5.

Harrison qualified officially for the team at the Sprint Olympic and National Team Trials in Bradenton, Florida in March.

Harrison now looks to become the first women's canoe gold-medal winner. The USA last captured a medal in a sprint boat race in 1988, when kayaker Greg Barton won two golds. Rebecca Giddens won silver in the kayak slalom in 2004.

"It's been my dream since I was a kid to compete at the Olympics," Harrison told TeamUSA.org. "I'm hoping I can live up to what I know I can do. The amount of pressure is going to be ridiculous, and I'm just hoping not to disappoint myself or anyone else."

While Harrison may have been dreaming of the Olympics as a child, those dreams may not have included a canoe. Harrison was a track and field athlete until she discovered canoeing at a sailing summer camp as a 12 year old. A counselor, a former national team canoeist, suggested Harrison try the sport on her final day of camp.

"I got in the boat and it totally clicked," Harrison said. "I wasn't very good at it, obviously, because boats are so tippy and it's so tough to properly do it your first time. But I made it out maybe 100, 200 meters.

"I remember (the counselor) yelling 'you're going to be a world champion someday.' It was kind of crazy. And I was just like, 'you know maybe I will be,' and it just kind of stuck. I kept doing it, and kept loving it and meeting amazing people and gradually year by year, I climbed the ladder and made it here."

Just five years after picking up the sport, Harrison announced her arrival on the international stage with a shocking victory in the 200m at the 2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged Hungary. She crossed the finish line in 49.30 seconds, winning by .44.

Harrison also won the 200m gold medal at the 2020 Canoe World Championships in Hungary, though Harrison said she was not as pleased with the performance, which included a poor start.

That event fell right in the middle of the pandemic, which was responsible for the cancellation of most other competitions, including the postponement of the Olympics from last year to this year.

In fact, Harrison entered the the Olympic trials this past spring with just one race under her belt in almost two years.

Instead, Harrison's focus was on training. In early 2020, she moved to Gainesville, Georgia, to train full-time with coach Zsolt Szadovszki at the 1996 Olympic venue on Lake Lanier

Harrison said that the year away from competition actually was beneficial. She matured physically, focused on getting better and embraced the role of favorite after her unexpected world championship victory in 2019.

"I was nowhere near ready to be competing in an Olympics a year ago," Harrison told the Kitsap Sun. "In 2019, winning worlds was a shock to me. Even going into 2020, I didn't really know what I was doing. Everything was coming really fast and I had no idea how I got to where I was and had not enough time to get to where I needed to be ... it was stressful and scary."

Speaking to Team USA.org, Harrison added: "(The pandemic) has given me a chance to step back and look at my life and sort of rediscover what I feel like I'm meant to do. It gave me a lot of time to not only get better at training, but also have a deeper understanding of myself, which I think at the end of the day is going to make me a better athlete."