♪ >> Hello and welcome to another edition of Canada Files .

I'm Jim Deeks.

I'm particularly delighted to say our guest this week is a 3-time Olympic medallist, in the gruelling sport of rowing.

And a true Canadian hero, Silken Laumann.

She joins us from her vacation home in Whistler, BC.

Before retiring in 1999, Silken won a silver & two bronze medals in three Olympic games.

But she will forever be remembered by Canadians for winning bronze in 1992 in Barcelona.

Only weeks after suffering what doctors said was a tragic career-ending injury.

However as we'll discuss, that wasn't the only hardship that Silken has faced in her incredible life journey.

>> Silken, thanks so much for joining us on Canada Files.

>> I'm happy to be here, Jim.

>> Before we talk about you, I want to ask about the state of Canadian rowing.

As you know, 25 - 30 years ago, Canada was considered, if not the number one country in rowing, it was among the top two or three.

That seems to have changed a bit though the Canada women's eight did win gold in Tokyo in 2020.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the Canadian dominance is not what it was a generation ago.

Would you agree with that?

>> The women's gold medal in Tokyo was a spectacular performance.

The good news is a lot of those women are young.

They are going to be the next generation of incredible athletes that our country has.

There's a lot of things that have to go right in order to be as dominant as we were in the 1992 Olympics.

You have to have the best coaches in the world working.

There has to be some stability in the organization.

Sport in Canada really is notoriously unstable in its organization.

Coaching has become more professional.

So good coaches are looking for that longevity working in a country.

I don't think we are able to provide that right now as things are in our sport.

We've got some really bright lights in our organization.

We do have some good coaches.

If the system itself could stabilize we could be... if not as dominant, because the riches are spread amongst many different nations now.

You don't see, as often, one country dominating.

As you did, perhaps in the '80s and early '90s.

>> Would you care to make a prediction about the rowing results for Canada coming into Paris next summer?

>> Coming into Paris, we could win certainly 2 or 3 medals.

And one of them could be gold.

>> That's certainly reassuring.

Let's talk about you.

What first got a young pre-teenage girl from Mississauga, Ontario just west of Toronto, interested in rowing back in the mid-70s.

It wasn't exactly a cool sport for girls to get into.

>> That's true.

In fact, my first love was track and field.

Which was a lot more glamorous than rowing.

I was a decent runner but kept getting injured.

However, my sister had signed up for the rowing team.

I think she thought it was going to be like canoeing in Algonquin Park in Northern Ontario.

However, she was very good at it, right from the get-go.

Her coach would ask me periodically when was I going to try this great sport.

I tried it the summer I was injured with stress fractures from running.

Honestly, I fell in love with it!

The water, the outdoors.

The combination of brute strength and technical know-how.

The beautiful feeling of the boat moving underneath me.

I just loved it and got good at it quickly.

>> I know there was another darker reason you got deeply into rowing as a teenager.

We'll talk about that in a minute.

On the water, you and your older sister, Danielle, formed a team.

As double-sculls, and perhaps unexpectedly won bronze in the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

Did you at the time think you, individually, had the makings to be an Olympic champion?

>> I literally dreamed about it the moment I picked up an oar.

Doing that well in the '84 Olympics certainly opened up the possibility of doing well individually.

I loved rowing the single, right from the get-go.

That pressure, in a way.

And all of the responsibility, good and bad was on myself.

It appealed to me.

>> You started to specialize in singles scull.

You had competed with your sister in the doubles.

You also were on a quad team.

But singles scull was always your preference.

Or was that something that was imposed on you by your coaches?

>> I think two things.

One, I had a curve in my spine.

That meant I was always more comfortable in a single.

Because I could adjust the boat to my body.

I loved that personal responsibility involved with being a single athlete in any sport.

It comes down to you, your performance.

You get all the glory but all those sad moments alone when you don't do well.

It just appealed to my personality.

>> You had some sad moments along the way.

Going into Barcelona, the Olympics in 1992, did you, by then, expect to win gold in the single sculls?

You had just won gold in the '91 World Championships.

Did you expect to win gold?

Did you feel all eyes were on you, at that point?

>> Certainly going into the '92 Olympics, I was the world champion and the World Cup champion.

I had dominated the year before.

My personal expectations, and probably my competitors and the rowing world, was that I was going to win a gold medal.

Anything short of that would have been disappointing.

Then of course, circumstances changed.

>> Let's talk about those.

Every Canadian will remember this.

About 10 weeks before the single sculls finals in Barcelona, you were on a training run and an accident occurred.

Tell us what happened.

>> It was 10 weeks before the Olympics.

I was in Germany competing in a World Cup race.

It was going to be the last time I was going to compete before the '92 Olympics.

In the warm-up area, where there wasn't sufficient safety measures, I was struck by the German men's pair.

My boat shattered on the side and drove 200 pieces of wood into my lower right leg.

Literally shredded the muscle, shattered the bone.

It did tendon, ligament and nerve damage.

In a split second, I knew my entire life had changed.

>> Against all odds, you managed to... not quite overcome that devastating injury but you competed in that race with a bandage on your leg.

With a mighty final kick, you managed to come in third and win the bronze in that race.

It wasn't the gold you might have been expecting but it was one of the great performances by any single athlete in Olympic history, certainly in rowing history.

Looking back, are you astounded at what you were able to pull off?

By getting back in and finishing third?

>> Absolutely.

I spent 3 weeks in the hospital.

Then 7 weeks later, won an Olympic medal.

It wasn't just a broken bone, it was massive skin damage.

A shattered ankle, nerve damage.

A lot of skin damage.

When I look at it now, I see it as an example of mind over matter.

When the desire is so great and we're so focused.

I think one of my strengths as a human as always been this hyper-focus .

My ability to really lock into what I want to achieve and just go for it.

That kind of mindset, positivity and inability to let go of that possibility.

Of going and winning a medal was what got me through.

It doesn't actually make logical senses.

When I look at the extent of the injury.

Something I still live with today!

>> I know you've talked about this tragic accident for exactly 30 years.

Is it still painful and emotional for you to re-kindle that... painful memory?

>> A really good question.

I am the kind of person when I remember something I go right into that moment.

So in some ways, I'm feeling the feelings I felt 30 years ago.

On the other hand, the accident, as horrific as it was, and has left lifelong physical damage in my leg, it opened up a lot of possibilities in my life.

I became very well-known in Canada.

I became a story of inspiration and hope.

Which I've been able to build out in my life today.

Provide inspiration and hope to other people in all sorts of different areas.

As so many things in life, as tragic and difficult it was in the moment, it's also been a blessing in other ways.

>> Why didn't you quit after that point--after the Olympics, Surely you had demonstrated to Canadians, to yourself and the world that you were truly an Olympic champion even if you hadn't won the gold.

You could have easily walked away at that point.

>> I think having been the world champion, won the world cup, I was in this upswing in my career.

It was an exciting time to realize I could consistently become a medalist in the single sculls.

I think I wasn't ready.

I had unfinished business at an Olympics where I wasn't injured.

Also I wanted to enjoy winning more world championships.

It's fun when you can be in that shape and competitive.

To be one of the top three in the world consistently year after year.

I got to do that between '92 and '96.

>> For those who have forgotten, you did continue on.

You came back to compete in the ...Atlanta Games in '96 where you won silver.

In view of the circumstances four years before, that may have been as impressive a win as your bronze medal in '92.

You finally retired in 1999.

Most people would have thought Silken will go off... have a nice life with wonderful memories, maybe not all wonderful memories ...behind her.

But away from the water, life hasn't been as easy as some people think.

Tell us about some of the challenges you faced since you retired 23 years ago.

>> The nature of being a human being is that we have challenges.

I had challenges while I was rowing.

The accident being the obvious one.

And I had a lot of challenges growing up.

I grew up in a house with a mom with an undiagnosed mental illness.

At a time when nobody talked about mental illness.

Mental illness was largely not treated.

For me, a lot of my motivation in becoming an athlete... a lot of that internal drive that I had revolved around wanting to prove myself, to myself.

Wanting to have some worth.

Something I really struggled with as a young person.

It's interesting in life there's always a flip side to every challenge that we had.

Then I'm human.

Like all of us, I continue to have challenges.

I went through a divorce when my children were really little.

They were only two and four.

That was heartbreaking, for all involved.

But it also led to new chapters of our lives.

The man that I'm now married to which has been a magical and spiritual connection between us.

All of these things continue to deepen me as a human being... continue to give me more connection points with my audiences when I'm speaking and writing.

>> You covered a lot of that territory in your 2014 autobiography which was titled, "Unsinkable, the untold story".

What was the untold story up to that point?

Was it the relationship with your mother and your mother's struggles?

Or the anxiety and depression that you have gone through?

Which I guess were one and the same.

>> They're related, aren't they.

We all have these two-dimensional ideas of our heroes of people we watch on tv.

From the 1992 Olympics, people saw me as that woman who overcame the accident.

Who had this incredible attitude and drive.

And was always positive and uplifting to other people.

The truth is, that is who I am.

But so is what I've overcome.

As you said earlier... some of the darkness in my life.

So that untold story really was that childhood story of growing up in a home with a mom who was struggling so deeply.

Even seven years ago, when I published the book, we weren't talking that openly about mental health.

Certainly not in the place we are today.

Not only talking about it, but looking to support one another.

in our health journeys.

We're recognizing that everybody has got mental health.

Everybody needs to invest in their mental health.

So the conversation has shifted so much.

I can tell you when I published my auto-biography in 2014, it was terrifying!

It was terrifying to come forward and be so open and vulnerable about my life.

But I had this absolute knowing that this book was going to help a lot of people by being as vulnerable and as open as I chose to be.

>> Did it help to bury those childhood demons that you had?

>> It would have helped me whether I published it or not.

I think sometimes when I write...

I'm a lifelong writer and journaller , there is this thing about working out and letting go.

Then to find the courage to put it out publicly.

Then to go through the interviews and all of that.

In a way, it was all part of that healing process and part of that letting goprocess.

>> Since retirement, you've done a lot of motivational speaking.

As have a lot of former athletes.

You all come from a perspective of focus and dedication.

Each one of you has a slightly different message.

What is your primary message to your audiences?

>> Ultimately I want people to find their own greatness.

Their own goals and dreams.

To have the courage to be themselves and vulnerable.

To believe that anything is possible.

When I go back to my life... being a little girl.

Sometimes feeling like I had no voice.

No power.

When I was 11, I set three dreams for myself.

I wanted to write a book, help children in Africa and I wanted to go to the Olympics and win a medal.

I've done all of those things in my life.

And I continue to do things that I imagine in my head.

Recognizing the power of our imagination to create the path of our life.

Our minds are unbelievable powerful.

I see it more and more as I've grown and matured.

I'm married to a man who believes anything is possible.

He doesn't spend much time in self-doubt.

What he's able to do in the business world-- he owns over 500 fitness clubs.

He doesn't have that same doubt.

He just believes it's possible.

I've been very blessed to be able to see in my life, and some of the people that I've come to know--that power.

I really want other people to see it in themselves.

We are always getting in our own way.

We're all the same, from that perspective.

It's our doubt, fear and history that we bring forward.

It prevents us from doing a lot of things that would ultimately make us happy.

>> You've also spent a fair amount of time in the advocacy of mental illness.

Not promoting it but understanding mental illness.

Tell us what you've been doing in that sector.

>> Writing my story, I began to understand the power of sharing that story, was therapeutic, like you said.

Also how a lot of the answers to good mental health comes from sharing with one another.

Being part of community.

Being able to tell our story, even if it's just to ourselves.

I created a platform called Unsinkable and Unsinkable Youth .

It's a platform where people can share their stories.

Not just about mental health, but what they've overcome.

What have been the challenges in their life... how they overcame.

The filter that we use in our organization is, is it hopeful and helpful to others?

Even the most difficult story of losing a child.

Or being in a depression so deep you're hospitalized.

It comes from a place where this is what I did and what worked for me.

This is what helped.

I know those stories help other people who are struggling.

From there, we live in this incredible world of media, digital and social media.

So we've become a connection point for so many people.

We have programs for young people to connect with one another.

To work on better mental and physical health.

>> Let's go back to your career.

From the perspective of 2022 what was your greatest achievement as a rower?

>> Wow!

There's some special moments.

Definitely winning the world championships.

Because it was something I dreamed about for so many years.

The way the race unfolded.

It was such a close race the entire time.

For the last 30 strokes I pulled ahead.

I knew I was going to win.

I had 30 strokes to capture the excitement of being the best in the world.

That was special.

And stands out as a star moment.

My medal in '92 and '96 were also special.

>> I asked about your greatest achievement but as someone who's been elected to two Canadian sports halls of fame.

One in Ontario and the National Hall of Fame.

And many other medals and honours, along the way.

What would you say is your proudest moment in your career, on and off the water?

>> ...being inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame was a sparkling moment for me.

It was something that I didn't expect.

A lot of movie stars, famous people get inducted.

I never really thought of myself so much in that company.

None of us do.

In Canada, we all think of ourselves as just Canadian.

But that was special to be in the company of these great musicians and artists.

To be recognized not only in the sport world but in the world of excellence.

My dad and my best friends were there.

It was a special night.

>> One of the other names on the Canadian Walk of Fame is Mary Pickford.

She was probably the biggest movie star during the silent era.

She was known as Canada's sweetheart.

I don't think that label was ever pinned on you.

But for a number of years in the '80s and '90s you would have qualified as Canada's sweetheart then.

Did you like the fame... not notoriety but being such a celebrity?

Or did that make you uncomfortable at the time?

>> ...with people, I'm very extroverted.

I need a lot of alone time in order to recharge.

I need a lot of creative time by myself.

Sometimes when you become such a public person, it's very difficult to find that time.

It's difficult to put those boundaries up.

I really struggled with that for a few years.

People thinking it's rude.

Or being worried that it was rude to pull away after an hour of being in public.

But I've since understood that to be part of what my needs are as a human being.

I'm super in-tune with what I need.

I think fame is a double-edged sword.

It's wonderful to be recognized for doing something well.

We all like that!

It's certainly easier to get in restaurants, things like that.

That was fun!

But the lack of and giving up privacy is a high cost for most people.

I found that.

I also say Canadians are very gracious and polite.

Especially when I was with my kids.

People were, and are, very respectful to this day.

>> Last question I ask all my guests on Canada Files .

It's amazing the variety of answers that I get.

The question is, what does being Canadian mean to you?

>> I think first about the land.

How sacred, ancient, magical our land is.

We're so fortunate.

Being Canadian is tied with the land, for me... and the water.

Secondly, I think of the word freedom .

I've been very fortunate as a woman, particularly.

To explore a sport and my potential in so many different avenues.

I've been given the freedom to do that.

I never take that for granted.

We have to, as a country and people, to value and fight for that.

>> Silken Laumann, thank you for your thoughts and insight.

Continued best wishes to you going forward.

Thanks for joining us on Canada Files .

>> Thank you, Jim.

>> And thank you for joining us.

We'll see you next time with more Canada Files .

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