“My first time representing Canada was in Mexico in 2010 at PanAms, then Junior Worlds and PanAms right after then U23 Worlds so 4 times. Junior Worlds was my first big international race, it was actually right here in Welland. We weren’t trying to train to be the best in Canada because we knew that wasn’t enough for the World stage against the Europeans so we were trying to up our game to make the finals at Worlds even though we were still training to qualify but it’s a step in the road, you have to get that first step to get to the next step, winning trials was a piece of the cake, we were focusing on the whole cake. I’m glad World Championships happened to be in Canada so it was amazing having all the support, family and friends here, you can’t get that anywhere, it’s just not the same atmosphere.
The week coming up to the big race, to the heat, you start to see competitions out there. You start to see the Germans, Hungarians and all that, it was a little intimidating but we knew we were here for a reason, we knew we were fast.
A little bit of a different feeling at U23 Worlds because I knew what to expect, like it was a big jump from U18 to U23 because you are racing against people that are able to race at Senior Worlds and podium so you have to be really mature to be there. I don’t know if I was exactly at that level yet, I knew I earned the spot but I don’t think I was mature enough to take that in. It’s still the same feeling when you are representing your country doing something you love to do, it’s a great feeling obviously.” – Jeremy Stott, Team Canada Canoer. (2/4)
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