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24 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2012 Olympic medallists stress importance of sports By Steve LeBlanc METROLAND MEDIA GROUP If one sport doesn't fit the bill, simply try something else. Emilie Heymans can't advocate that strongly enough -- and for obvious reasons. Fresh off her fourth straight medal-winning Olympics, the 30-year-old Quebec native didn't take up either of her athletically-gifted parents' sports -- fencing for mom and soccer for dad -- when she was a child. Instead, her initial sports endeavour was that of many young girls -- gymnastics. Heymans' elite-level potential was quickly recognized, but the balance beam or vault weren't in the picture. "The coaches felt I'd be better suited for diving," she recalled. And the rest, as aquatics fans know, is history. But when it comes to the benefits she has enjoyed from a lifetime in sports, Heymans stresses that Olympic glory is just part of her story. "Sports has always had a "Sports has always had big place in my family," said the highly-accomplished diver a big place in my family. and second-generation It gave me structure and Olympian -- with mom makobviously made me ing it to the 1976 Summer healthier." Games in Montreal. "It (sports) gave me structure and obviFour-time Olympic diving ously made me healthier." medallist Emilie Heymans To that end, Heymans was only too willing to lend her support to the Canadian Tire Jumpstart program -- doing so yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon with an appearance at the organization's 19th annual charity golf tournament at north Oakville's Rattlesnake Point Golf Club. Raising more than $8 million in previous years, Jumpstart helps financially-disadvantaged children participate in organized sport and recreation -- covering the cost of registration, equipment and transportation. "I encourage all kids to find a sport they like and practise it as long as they wish," said Heymans. Also aiding in the cause was Canada's trampoline golden girl, Rosie MacLennan. The 23-year-old King City native needed only to look to her right for a reminder that all athletes -- even those with Olympic-level skill -- need help from someone or something. "I have to give her a lot of credit," the Olympic champion said, pointing to teammate Karen Cockburn during the autograph session, with fellow trampoline gymnast Jason Burnett between them. "My brothers were also in trampoline and growing up I was in awe of what Karen could do, and then later to become her partner was incredible. She's always been there for me." With three older siblings, MacLennan said her earliest sports memories were somewhat of a "tag-along" scenario. "But my mom made sure we were all involved in all sorts of activities," she recalled, adding that her family's first backyard trampoline served more as a fun slide than for the type of acrobatics Canada came to admire her for this summer. Describing Jumpstart as "amazing," MacLennan said she See Sports, page 25 GRAHAM PAINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @HALTON_PHOTOG OLYMPIC ENDORSEMENT: Canadian Olympic medallists (left to right) Richard Weinberger (bronze, 10-kilometre men's open swim), Rosie MacLennan (gold, women's trampoline) and Emilie Heymans (bronze, women's synchronized diving) pose with a Canadian Tire Jumpstart hockey jersey yesterday at Rattlesnake Point Golf Club. The trio and three other former Olympians visited Rattlesnake for a charity golf tournament in support of Jumpstart, which helps financially-disadvantaged children participate in organized sport and recreation. LOST founder swims across Lake Ontario By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Rob Kent could appreciate the irony. The 47-year-old had tested himself all over the world, from attempting to swim across the English Channel (he was pulled out of the water after 12 hours, unconscious and hypothermic) to successfully completing a seven-day marathon across the Sahara Desert. But Kent had yet to take on the challenge that loomed just a few minutes from his Oakville home. Kent finally struck that item off his bucket list last weekend, entering the lake Sunday near Port Dalhousie and adventures is that you get wrapped up exiting it nearly 21 hours later at in them, but you still have to carry on downtown Oakville's with your real life, your Lighthouse Pier, becoming wife, your kids, your job. It the 51st person in history to has to be something that successfully swim across works time-wise and comLake Ontario. mitment-wise and finan"It was one of those cially-wise." things that just had to Not that Kent had work," Kent, who works as ignored Lake Ontario all a currency trader for a that time. Quite the conToronto bank, said when trary, in fact. asked to explain why he Six years ago, the former waited so long in his life to high-level competitive Rob Kent attempt a crossing of Lake swimmer (Kent competed in the Olympic trials in 1988) turned Ontario. "The thing with any of these big See Seven, page 25