Douro Local Chases Olympic Rowing Dream

Grace VandenBroek started her rowing career when she was a grade 9 student at St. Peter’s Catholic Secondary School and she has not stopped since.

Photo Courtesy of Rowing Canada Aviron.

The 20-year-old grew up in Douro and is now temporarily living in British Columbia where she was training for the U23 World Championships.

The event took place in Račice, Czech Republic from July 7-11. VandenBroek and her teammates placed 11th in the quadruple skulls.

“I decided to come back here because I’m able to train with people that have the same mindset and have similar goals as me,” said Vandenbroek. “That will help keep me motivated.”

She will return to Peterborough in September to enter her fourth year of Trent University in the Business Administration program.

While her successes in rowing have taken her all over the world, VandenBroek says she likes coming home to her small town.

VandenBroek takes home Bronze at the 2017 World Rowing Junior Championships with Kieanna Stephens. Photo Courtesy of row2k.com.

“It’s a blessing for me to be from such a small community,” she said. “I feel like the whole community is behind you more so than they would if you were from somewhere big like Toronto.”

Her parents and two older brothers have been by her side since the very beginning explained VandenBroek. She also points out her large extended family offers a huge amount of support.

“It’s cool to come home after having all of these opportunities and going to all these places and still come home and wave an everyone that goes by your house because you know who everyone is,” she said.

VandenBroek will continue training when she comes home and has her eyes set on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.

“All of my training is directed towards the 2024 Olympics,” she said. “But there’s a lot of steps I need to take between now and then in order to get there.”

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