An Aussie’s journey: Gig Harbor to the Olympics in a kayak

Ikaika in Hawaiian means ‘strength and perseverance,’ which can be a poetic way to sum up former Olympic kayaker Shelley Oates-Wilding’s athletic journey.

From humble beginnings as an exchange student in Gig Harbor to being an Olympian, to giving back with her non-profit, the ripple effect of Oates-Wilding reaches far and wide.

Born and raised in Australia, Oates-Wilding came to the Pacific Northwest as a foreign exchange student for her senior year of high school in 1982. She came to participate in sports like cross county, basketball, and track.

Basketball put her on the path to the Olympics. Oates-Wilding’s original host family was not into sports as much as she was. So Tides coach Paul Berg suggested that she should move into the house of Marc Ross, Peninsula’s girls’ basketball coach.

Ross understood what kind of training Oates-Wilding needed to participate in and gladly took her into his home. Unfortunately on the day she was going to move in, Oates-Wilding broke her ankle at school practice. She didn’t get to meet the rest of her new family until after she left the hospital in crutches.

The Ross family made her feel welcome and at home in Gig Harbor. Whenever Oates-Wilding returns to the Pacific Northwest from her current home in Kauai, Hawaii, she bunks with Susan Ross, her “sister.”

Athletes as sisters

Training as an athlete in America taught Oates-Wilding two distinct lessons that she carries to this day. First, she learned how American athletes supported each other.

“I found that the people here are so nice. It’s different in Australia, where everyone is trying to be better than the next person,” she said. “We have what’s called the ‘tall poppy syndrome’. So when someone gets good, you chop them off so they’re the same as everyone else. It’s an Australian thing that we do, we criticize each other as a joke, but it’s just to make sure everyone is humble.”

She found the different attitude refreshing and that allowed her to try to be the best at everything she did.

The second lesson? Oates-Wilding learned to talk differently about herself.

In Australia, it was not as common for people to speak highly about themselves. Her views changed after she saw people in America talk themselves up without coming across as big-headed.

After posting successful seasons in cross country and eventually track, Oates-Wilding graduated in the spring of 1983 from Gig Harbor. Returning home to Australia, she was selected as a heptathlete by the Australian Institute of Sport.

Unfortunately, lack of time and coaching for all the events didn’t allow Oates-Wilding to participate in the track-based events. But once again, the obstacle pivoted her closer to her true passion.

Discovering kayaks

“At the same time, [the Institute] had a sport that didn’t go to the Olympics but is big in Australia called netball. So I changed over to be a netball athlete,” she said. “One day I was playing touch football and I hurt my knee really badly. [I was told] I would never run again and at that stage, I was 24. I looked at people at the Olympics and I really would love to go, so what could I do without my legs?”

During the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Oates-Wilding saw a fellow countryman participating in a K4 (four-person kayak crew) event.

Seeing her country represented in such an interesting and new sport to her, Oates-Wilding was inspired to reach the Olympics by kayaking.

Setting forth on a rigorous training schedule that included being on the water twice a day in 1988, Oates-Wilding made it to the world championship for canoe and kayaking in 1989. Eventually, she realized her dream and became an Olympian for Australia on the women’s K4 kayaking team.

Her highest finish came in 1996 in Atlanta, where her team came in eighth. She competed in the 2000 games in Sydney and was an alternate for the 2008 games in Beijing.

In at the beginning

During a training session in the early 2000s at a local Gig Harbor gym, Oates-Wilding met Alan Anderson. At the time, Anderson was mulling the idea of starting a canoe and kayak club for the community.

“I was in there working out and I noticed a gal wearing a shirt with a kayak on it and I went up and talked to her,” he said. “She was passing through Gig Harbor to visit her host family from years before. She told me about her history of being on two Olympic teams and I told her I’m going to start a team here in Gig Harbor for kids.”

Anderson’s club evolved into the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak racing team, a world-class program that Oates-Wilding visits on her return trips to Gig Harbor. In fact, her daughter Kali Wilding practiced with the GHCKC alongside her partner Elena Wolgamot to prepare for the 2020 US Olympic trials in canoe and kayak.

“Now my daughter, who I never thought would kayak because I didn’t want her to and wanted her to do her own thing, has been to a few world championships in juniors,” Oates-Wilding said. “She only just turned 18. We are lucky enough after 10 years to get our citizenship. So we finally became American citizens, which means she is allowed to compete at the Olympic trials.”

The trials for canoe and kayak were held in Sarasota, Florida on March 19-21. Kali finished fifth in the women’s K1 200-meter sprint with a time of 51.236 seconds, sixth in the K1 500m at 2:19.273, and second with Wolgamot in the K2 500m at 2:02.503.

The shared goal between Oates-Wilding and her daughter is for Kali is to qualify for the 2028 Olympics to be held in Los Angeles.

At this point in her life, Oates-Wilding’s journey with kayaking has turned to giving back to her local community. That desire has led to her owning and operating her own non-profit called Ikaika Hawaii Watermans Academy.

Located on the island of O’ahu, the non-profit program creates positive experiences for the participants all while teaching them the Hawaiian culture regarding water.

“I get a chance to influence kids differently to being a teacher,” she said. “I really think it’s important that people know if you really are passionate about something, you’re not sacrificing anything else because you are doing exactly what you like.”