VINCENT-LAPOINTE Laurence

General
VICTORY FOR EQUALITY
She is delighted she will have the chance to compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Her two events - the C1 200m and the C2 500m - were both added to the women's Olympic programme in 2017, and she says she was inspired by her fellow international sprint paddlers Sheila Kuyper and Pamela Boteler who campaigned to have the events acknowledged at Olympic level for a number of years. "[They] both fought hard for many years to get our discipline recognised. While they came to be our top advocates in the political fight, I made it my own goal to become the best in the world. To personally prove to everyone that women were strong and determined to excel at canoeing. Every time someone came up to me to say that they were amazed that women could paddle so well, I took it as a step in the right direction. Every time a woman told me I had inspired her to start or keep canoeing felt like one more victory for us." (cbc.ca, 28 Nov 2018)

STARTING WITH A SPLASH
When she first started paddling she says she could not keep the boat upright. She is 182cm tall, and believes her height may have affected her balance. "That first day in the current, I tipped. And I tipped. And I tipped. Because falling in the water was what I constantly did for a full two years following that first practice - I have drunk my fill of river water. My inability to stay in the boat for longer than five minutes came in part from my height. Being a gangly, almost six -foot kid did not help with the balance." (cbc.ca, 28 Nov 2018)