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24 Sports Oakville Beaver OUT OF INK? REFILL AND SAVE UP TO 60% Upper Oakville Shopping Centre (Upper Middle & 8th Line) 905-842-5600 SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2009 Stroke of fate leads Csima to world rowing podium By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Doug Csima never considered himself a rower. Rowers were a different breed. They all hung out together. They kept unusual hours, going to bed when everyone else was just getting ready for a night out and woke up hours before anyone even had a chance to hit the snooze alarm for the third time. That wasn't him. "I was just an athlete amongst rowers," he said. Or so he thought. Sure, he was as green as they come when he joined the McMaster rowing program in 2003. He never had any intentions of getting in a boat. His interests had more to do with competing on frozen water. A goalie with the Oakville Rangers rep program and later the Iroquois Ridge high school team, Csima was looking forward to continuing to play the game at university but was disappointed to learn that Mac didn't have a hockey team. Looking for another athletic outlet, he signed up for McMaster's rowing club. At the first indoor practices they did testing on rowing machines and Csima came out ahead of some of those already on the varsity team. "Even though I didn't necessarily know what I was doing, the coaches showed an interest," he said. Over the next two years, the school's coaches began working to harness that power and merge it with some rowing technique. In his second year at Mac, Csima helped the Marauders' coxed fours win a silver medal at the Ontario University Athletics rowing championships and that summer won three medals (two silvers and a bronze) at the Canada Games. Then, one day as he awoke for a 5 a.m. practice, it dawned on him. "I've become one them," he thought. One of elite eight Csima is not only just one of them now. He's one of Canada's best with a spot on the country's most prestigious crew, the senior men's eight, which has three Olympic gold medals to its credit. In August, Csima and the Canadians earned a silver medal at the world championships in Poznan, Poland. "I used to joke around about it," Csima said, "With only a shade of seriousness, I said I was going to row for the national team, and row at the Olympics." The 23-year-old said that was never really a consideration early in his rowing career. PHOTO BY PAUL AMESBURY / ROWING CANADA SUCCESS BY THE BOATLOAD: Oakville's Doug Csima (back row, third from right) and the Canadian senior men's eight crew won silver at this year's world rowing championships. For the first three years, he didn't compete outside Ontario. It wasn't until he was invited to a national training camp in 2007, where he earned a place on Canada's development team, that his eyes were opened to the possibilities of what he could achieve in the sport. This summer, after earning his place on the eights -- Csima sits in the four seat, one of the power seats in the boat -- he is realizing the position in which he finds himself. "Great results are expected from us," Csima said. "It's a disappointment if we're not on the podium. It's even a disappointment for some if we don't win." The eights had not participated in any of the World Cup races leading up to the world championships. Breaking in almost an entirely new crew, just two members returned from the gold medal crew at the Beijing Olympics, the Canadians had no idea where they would stand on the world stage. But the Canadians would not disappoint, earning the silver medal at worlds, finishing three seconds behind Germany. "It was such a great result considering how little experience we had," Csima said. "And we know we have so much room to improve." Csima has no lack of motivation for continuing to get better. It's unknown how many of the Olympic crew will return next season after a year off. That means all the newcomers will have to earn their spots all over again, this time against more experienced counterparts. "It's going to be a good push," Csima said. "I'm going to fight pretty hard to keep mine." Csima showed his commitment to that goal by moving across the country. After graduating from McMaster, Csima enrolled at the University of Victoria, where he is in the Health Information Science Masters program, in order to train year-round with the rest of the national team. So now when he talks about rowing at the Olympics in London in 2012, he's dead serious. "It's pretty exciting to think that you're so close," he said. "When you've had success internationally, it makes that dream become so much more real. Now it's up to me to make it happen, to finish the job."