A former standout with the Delta Deas Rowing Club is now overseeing Canada's first-ever pararowing centre which opened earlier this month at Elk Lake in Victoria.
In the past, national level athletes trained in their hometowns and were then united multiple times a year at training camps in various locations.
All of that has now changed.
"This will be the first time operations will be centralized year round in one location," explained Ladner native Paul Hawksworth, Program Manager for the Canadian para-rowing team.
After rowing at DDRC, Hawksworth enjoyed an impressive competitive career at the University of Victoria where his honours included rookie-ofthe-year, team MVP and two-years as team captain. He graduated with a degree in psychology in 2003 and went on to become an accomplished coach at the club, university and national team levels.
Hawksworth worked nearly three years as a development coach for the national men's program before heading the para rowing team in the fall of 2012.
Para-rowing is not new in Canada. Rowing clubs across the country have been offering opportunities to athletes with disabilities for decades. However with the introduction of para-rowing events at the World Championships in 2005, as well as the introduction of the sport into the Paralympic Games program in 2008, the competition at the international level has been rising steadily.
"In order to perform well in crew boats, athletes have to row and train together year-round," Hawksworth emphasizes.
He also notes that the ability to oversee the development of new and emerging talent is easier to do when everyone is based out of one location.
This is how the system for able-bodied athletes functions and something Hawksworth is eager to duplicate.
"A rowing Center allows every one to feed off of each other and to raise the level of the group," he adds, "a fact which is important for a sport which is becoming increasingly competitive every year."
There is also another benefit: athlete development.
"When veterans and newcomers train together," Hawksworth explains, there is less of a void when the older athletes retire from the sport."
Something that happened to the Canadian team two years ago, following the London Paralympic regatta.
After two years of medal performances at the World Championships (including a world title in 2010) and a seventh place finish in London in 2012, the team had few athletes to draw from at the start of the new quadrennial, the four-year cycle between Games, in 2013.
Three of the athletes from the mixed four retired following the Games, and the para-team was left adrift in 2013 and 2014. The program was unable to field a single crew to compete on the world stage in these two years.
"Hopefully with a proper Center, this will not happen again," Hawksworth stresses.
