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DE RANGO PHARMACY INC. 2501 T905-465-3000 • P• H • C AlwaHelp Pharmacist -Fabio De Rango Drug Store/Pharmacy Interlocking & Concrete Specialists Call Mario 905.842.7171 sunmarlandscape.com ™ La n d s c a p in g 3133 Burnhamthorpe Rd W, Milton, On L9E 0J7 • Pebble Concrete • Stamped Concrete • Interlocking • Flagstone • Walkways • Garage Floors • Patios • Driveways • Curbs (French) Interlocking & Concrete Specialists Communities we serve: Located in Halton region, we work in and around • Milton • Campbellville • Burlington • Aldershot • Hamilton • Oakville • Mississauga • Waterdown • Carlisle Adam Oldershaw has been Alanna Bray-Lough- eed's coach for more than a decade, but it was a piece of advice from another mem- ber of the well-known pad- dling family that opened her eyes to her potential. It was the 2007 national championships and the 14- year-old was added to the Burloak Canoe Club's se- nior women's war canoe team. The youngest mem- ber of the team was both nervous and excited when she was approached by Connie-Lee Oldershaw, Adam's mom. "You should be feeling like throwing up when this race is over," she told her. The 15-member crew went out and took the gold medal, setting a Canadian record. "All the coaches, every- body, were so proud of what we did," Bray-Lough- eed recalls. "It was the greatest feeling." Having previously viewed paddling as some- thing fun to do with her friends, that day showed Bray-Lougheed the re- wards that came with giv- ing her all to her sport. Fourteen years later, it's a lesson the kayaker has continued to put into prac- tice -- one that was re- warded with a spot on the Canadian Olympic team after joining Andréanne Langlois, Michelle Russell and Madeline Schmidt to win the K-4 1,000 metre race at Canadian trials. But it wasn't long ago Bray-Lougheed wondered if her best was enough. • • • • In 2019, with the Olym- pics a year away, the World Cup season provided a crit- ical opportunity to race against the world's best. Bray-Lougheed, a national team member since 2015, did not make the team, though. She wondered if it was time to retire. Adam Oldershaw ad- vised her to not make a de- cision in a moment of dis- appointment. They worked together through the sum- mer, made some minor technical adjustments, but the biggest change was fo- cusing on herself. "We talked about, in your K-1, how are you going to be faster?" he said. "How do you build on your own strengths to bring some- thing to the team?" "Having that setback challenged me," Bray- Lougheed said. "It's been a pattern in my career, turn- ing a setback into an op- portunity. I spent more time at home training at the club without all the travel and got back to ba- sics." The reset worked. She came back later that year and not only made Cana- da's Pan Am Games team, she won two gold medals. The victories were the breakthrough she needed. "I was as fit as I ever have been, and it just car- ried through to the next season," Bray-Lougheed said. "I had a fire in my bel- ly and I was paddling bet- ter than I ever have been." Then last March, a month before Olympic tri- als, the Canadian team was told to return home from their Florida training camp because of COVID-19. What Bray-Lougheed thought might be a couple of weeks off the water stretched into the summer. Then the Olympics were postponed by a year. Bray-Lougheed focused on her dryland training, which helped her carry the momentum she had built to the water when the Ca- nadian team was able to begin training again. • • • • Bray-Lougheed remem- bers gathering at Burloak, sometimes in the middle of the night, to watch the club's paddlers compete at the Olympics. "There was just such a great vibe and excitement in the room watching those races on the big screen," she said. She will now carry on that tradition. This will be the fifth straight Olympics in which the club has been represented, but she is also breaking ground as the first female Burloak pad- dler to make an Olympic team. "We've always had a good women's program," Oldershaw said, "but I think for the younger pad- dlers it becomes a little more real when they see someone achieve it." With the announce- ment that foreign specta- tors will not be allowed in Tokyo, Bray-Lougheed is disappointed her family won't be there, but she knows she will have anoth- er family cheering her on. "I'll definitely remem- ber those viewing parties and how I felt," she said. "I know that will give me a boost." 'TURNING A SETBACK INTO OPPORTUNITY' Top, Alanna Bray-Lougheed (right) has qualified for this summer's Olympics. Right, Alanna Bray-Lougheed (seen here with her team in front) earned a spot on the Canadian Olympic team. Flávio Florido photos HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@metroland.com NEWS PADDLER PUNCHES TICKET TO OLYMPICS