Heather’s canoeing journey began at a young age. Living in the Manchester area in the UK, her family enjoyed trips to the Lake District and were often found to be pursuing sporting and outdoor activities. Coupled with visiting relatives in the USA during summer holidays, Heather found her sporting passion and talent on the water. She competed in her first race at age 8.
“My grandparents used to spend the summers in Minnesota. We ended up doing some Canadian canoe on river trips and we met a canoe club and I competed in the American nationals at around age 11.”
Heather was competing against other youngsters at national level in what she recalls having been an under-18 category.
Back in Manchester and Heather joined a canoe club and was really enjoying the experience.
In her first youth competition – the Junior Worlds – Heather placed third and took home a medal. This sparked her love of the sport even more. With little expectation on her to medal or do well at this early stage, Heather excelled and her early success drove her to continue the sport.
Heather recalled the coaching of the sport having a different set-up to what we might expect to see today.
“I remember when the national coach was hired – the one national coach.
“It was very much the older athletes who had either made it or retired who would help the younger athletes.”
Heather remembers athletes being offered free food and accommodation for cooking at training camps, or others driving the athletes to competitions and training. A familial and collegiate vibe, her experiences in those early days were shaping her love of canoeing and instilling values to support the next generation.
As Heather was looking to compete at more senior levels on the global stage, it wasn’t always plain sailing.
She found that funding could be unreliable, she wasn’t always selected for competitions and had to fight hard.
Racing as a Brit – born in the UK to a British father and American mother – Heather automatically chose to race for Great Britain. Her familial ties to America would prove useful later.
With unreliability of income as an athlete and with less structured coaching activities than we have today, Heather soaked up advice and ideas from other sources. Heather’s now-husband Geoff Parsons was a high jumper, and Heather trained with him and other athletes who were in track and field, opting to add strength training to her regime.
This tied in with her time at Â鶹ֱ²¥. She adds: “It was great to go to the gym. Coming to Â鶹ֱ²¥ was brilliant for me because it opened my eyes to other sports and how they trained. I did a lot of running, which sounds weird for canoeing because you think it's all upper body, but it’s your core strength and being really physically fit.”
Heather did some training with the late George Gandy, taking part in his circuit sessions.
She took advantage of a flexible master’s course around her training, and so as not to miss any lectures: “It was a really full education, I really benefited from it.”
After her master’s, Heather returned to Â鶹ֱ²¥ for a PhD, continuing her canoeing alongside it.
It was during her PhD where she built a great network of peers who would not only support her and her goals but would also offer Heather a life outside of canoeing – something she really valued. She had a new network of people to socialise with, and a potential career path being lined up for her post-canoeing life. She added: “they’re my lifelong friends now.”
Heather remained dedicated to her sport, competing in many World Championships and other competitions throughout her career. She persisted in order to realise her dream of making it to Beijing in 2008, having not been selected for other games.
With many externals factors impacting an athlete, Heather said: “Your focus is very narrow, so I feel it’s a weirdly vulnerable place to be. It can be disempowering as an athlete, which sounds ironic because we always ‘big up’ sportspeople. You have your moments, but they tend to be quite brief. You’re not always going to succeed.”
At the time, lottery funding was beginning, but Heather had her PhD and later Research Associate salary in place for both a career and financial support for her sport. She became self-sufficient in terms of funding and coaching. Coached by her husband and her friend Lisa Micheler, who won a medal in 1992, Heather’s set-up was personal.
She realised she wasn’t going to be selected for the games. Heather travelled to the World Championships not knowing if she’d be able to compete.
With funding barriers and team selection issues to overcome, Heather reflected and realised that she could compete for the USA.
She needed to have a gap before she could compete, but when the time came, Heather recalls the team in America being really strong: “I was shocked how hard it was in many ways. I had to train a lot in the States, and that’s when the University really supported me.”
Continuing work on her PhD during that time, it was after the Beijing games in 2008 that she completed her doctorate.
Selected for the 2008 games, Heather competed in the Kayak Singles Canoe Slalom event, placing 8th.
She’d achieved her dream of making it to the games and she was overwhelmed with the level of support she received:
“I thought I understood the badge of the Olympics. I did not realise that all family all over the world – that had never noticed when you won a world, when you were #1 ranked in the world or you got a medal in a World Cup – would be more interested. I had this massive support that I had never had before. It was just amazing. It was shocking to me.
“My cousin came from America. My brother came from America. They came to China to watch.
“It was really good, but it was also a little bit overwhelming because I hadn't anticipated it. I understood that you'll get more offers and sponsors. I understood that side.
“It was quite beautiful and overwhelming.”
Heather also talked about the support around athletes and encouraged them to take advantage of things such as physio and medical support. Reflecting on her own experiences, Heather added: “In retrospect I should have gone, ‘wow’, and really tried to embrace that energy.”
However, she wasn’t overwhelmed by the occasion:
“I didn't get overwhelmed, but I didn't get lifted by it. I was scared of becoming overwhelmed by the crowds and the stadium and everything. We stay grounded, essentially.
“I stayed really professional. Really. I did. All my planning was to keep everything the same. Just another day in the office. Just another day. Stay in my own zone. But I did. I kind of retrospectively would advise someone to be just a little bit more semi-permeable to the experience and to let that energy in.”
She decided to avoid the press between runs to ensure she stayed focused, something she now regrets. Heather added: “I wouldn't do that now if I was redoing it. I would never tell anyone what I was going to do, and I'd always leave myself to make the decision at the moment.”
Reflecting on other competitions and her whole career as a canoeist, Heather added:
“I was top ten in the world most of my career. Yeah, very occasionally in the top three.
"I loved what I did. I absolutely loved the journey. We travelled around the world being paid or scraping the money together, basically doing something we love in beautiful environments.
“Back then, there weren't as many artificial courses. We were in the most idyllic environments, surrounded by beautiful trees and nature and butterflies swimming across our boats. It was just idyllic. We'd go to Chile and Costa Rica and New Zealand and with groups of people, all with a single purpose. You weren't on holiday, you were kind of living in those countries and training and racing. And you had purpose and, it was just the life.
“I had very strong feelings towards my teammates and very collaborative feelings. And then of course, you'd race against that person because there's only one top spot.
“I've never felt I was racing against everyone in the world like I was. I finished top ten in the world many, many times.
“Making a final was important to me, and so I was usually in the final and I did that for I don’t know how many years – many, many years and it was fun. And when I got a medal that was bonus, because it allowed me to do more of what I wanted – to stand on the podium with friends.”
Heather in her career – two silvers and four bronzes.
She added: “Don't plan to be top ten. Don't set your expectations in a realistic way, but plan to win every single race and be completely happy with last.
“Forget measurement.
“Try and win every training session and try and win every race, but cope and learn to cope with failing and expect to fail 99.9% of the time.
“Ditch expectation.”
Heather was coached throughout periods of her career by Geoff Parsons, Lisa Micheler, Lara Tipper, Jane Wilson, and Adrian Welsh amongst other national coaches and club coaches.
Heather graduated with an MSc in Sports Science in 2002 and her PhD in Sport and Exercise Science in 2010. She also worked at the University.
She didn’t return to professional canoeing after Beijing and went on to have children – something which was very important to her. She remains dedicated to learning, researching, sharing knowledge with young people through her co-founded business, Corpar Education, and to wellbeing.
Thank you to Heather for sharing an insight into her journey.
As we celebrate Â鶹ֱ²¥ athletes and coaches, our alumni spotlights are honing in on some of our former students and staff who have also competed on the global stage. Find out more on the Â鶹ֱ²¥ athletes on the global stage website or by checking out #Lboro2Paris on social media.