Taking up a brand new sport at age 25 might not be unusual, but winning a World Championship gold medal in it five years later could be termed exceptional.

Go back to the year 2000. Tracy Cameron, an all-around athlete at Hants East Rural High, where she was Female Athlete of the Year all three years there, and recruited to play basketball at Acadia University, was in Calgary working towards her Master of Science in Sports Medicine, when she decided to try a learn-to-row program.

After the first week, she told her coach she was going to the Olympics.

Cameron started as a heavyweight rower (over 60 kg), but, when she was the last cut to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics, decided to go down in weight to the lightweight class (maximum 59 kg). She lost 9 kg (20 lbs) to do it, facing her biggest challenge to reach her Olympic goal. She had to eat nutritiously, fuelling herself to remain healthy in a smaller body.

Beijing 2008 was the goal. With only two Canadian spots available, Cameron had to be in the top two in the country to make the two-person boat.

Her reputation was growing. In 2005, she won gold in fours at Worlds in Japan. Two golds, in singles and doubles, followed at World Cup events in 2006. In 2007, World Cup silver and bronze medals were earned and, in 2008, prior to the Olympics, she won a gold and bronze in World Cup events.

When she qualified to represent Canada in Beijing, her Olympic dream was realized. The race was extremely close, with a difference of less than two seconds between first and fourth after seven minutes of rowing. The Dutch were obvious gold medallists, 0.6 seconds ahead of the Danes, who were 0.4 seconds ahead of Canada and Germany battling for bronze, but Canada took third by 0.04 of a second.

Cameron’s dream had come true. She believed she could do it, believed it was possible and did what she had to do – work hard – to achieve that goal.

She continued to row, winning another world championship in 2010 and a World Cup gold in 2011. Cameron ended her career before the 2012 London Olympics, at age 37, giving her earned spot to another Canadian rower.

*Biography excerpted from the induction program article by Joel Jacobson*