Seattle’s Nevin Harrison, who trained with Gig Harbor canoe club, wins gold medal in Olympics

Nevin Harrison, a 19-year-old Seattle native who has trained in the past with the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak Racing Team, has won a gold medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Harrison took first in the inaugural C1 200-meter race just before 8 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, clocking in at 45.932 seconds, edging out Canada’s Laurence Vincent-Lapointe, who took second at 46.786.

And in Gig Harbor, there was jubilation on the waterfront. On Tuesday, Gig Harbor put on a live concert as part of their “Summer Sounds at Skansie” series. Mayor Kit Kuhn, for a moment, put a stop to it.

He grabbed the microphone at Skansie Park and informed concertgoers of a watch party Wednesday evening in support of Harrison, who was only two races away from a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics at the time. The 19-year-old was a two-year member of the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak Racing team, and “shocked the world” with a world championship at age 17.

Shortly before the outdoor concert, Harrison won her initial heat, bypassing the quarter-final stage and clinching a spot in the 200-meter C-1 semifinals. In a group of eight, the top four would advance to the final some two hours later.

She brought to Tokyo a simple, but effective strategy: start in full-sprint out of the gates, find a groove midway through the race to conserve energy, and go all-out in the closing seconds.

“And in the 200 (meter), generally you go hard the whole way, but she was saving something,” Alan Anderson said, who coached Harrison for two years and founded the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak Racing Team. “She had a remarkable time (in the first heat). She looks fabulous. And listening to her interviews (Wednesday) morning, she sounds like she is ready to do something special.”

And so Harrison — nearly 4,800 miles from a cheering crowd of family, friends, and even Gig Harbor city councilmembers — took to the water. At around 5:50 p.m. local time, she started her semifinal race, and won.

She was 200 meters away from the gold.

“She is the type of young person that sets a goal and gets after it,” Anderson said. “Very athletic, very goal-focused, and once she turned her attention to canoeing because of her track injury, she went to town. And the rest is history.”

Harrison took up competitive canoeing after injuring her hip during her freshman year of high school. Before joining Gig Harbor’s team, Anderson remembers competing against her when she raced for the Seattle Canoe and Kayak Club.

Anderson founded Gig Harbor’s program, but current head coach Aaron Huston put the team “over the hump.” He’s currently in charge of international coaching duties, and now, kids are traveling from around the country to train at Skansie Park — including Harrison.

She hadn’t taken canoeing seriously until the injury, but she began winning immediately. At 17, she won the 200-meter world championship in Hungary. Last year, she repeated as the best in the world in what was historically considered a non-US dominated event.

Her Olympic dreams were postponed in 2020, but they wouldn’t slip away Wednesday. Out of 16 semifinalists, she had the best time. She was in prime position for the gold medal, and it was clear someone would have to take it from her.

The race began, and Harrison pulled ahead. Alongside her was Canada’s Laurence Vincent-Lapointe, a canoeist who jumped through hoops to make her Olympic dreams come true after testing positive for a banned substance in 2019.

“I’m here to race and beat who I have to,” Harrison was quoted saying on the ACA Paddlesports website.

But Harrison, as she had in the semifinals, preserved enough energy for a final push. Once she had the lead, she never gave it back. Her final time of 45.932 seconds won the race over Vincent-Lapointe by nearly a full second.

She crossed the finish line, and held back tears.

With her first-place finish, Harrison became the first female canoeist to win gold for the United States in sprint canoe.

This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 8:15 PM.