Taylor Potts | Canada | Sportscene - It’s hard to define Mallorie Nicholson in a page. She represents women’s canoe with integrity and passion. She focused on Native American issues in her undergrad of Peace and Conflict studies. Her homemade costumes are astounding. She describes Buffy the Vampire Slayer as one of her idols.

Before getting to know Mallorie more personally, I only knew her as the fastest female C-1 paddler in Canada. Now I can appreciate the perseverance and zest for life Mallorie brought from her personal life to her paddling career that makes her one of the most admirable people I have ever met.

Mallorie has never been one for conventionality: in high school, she was a member of the men’s wrestling and football team, looking for a challenge. For similar reasons she chose canoe over kayak. Mallorie began paddling at age twelve through the summer bantam program at Burloak Canoe Club in Oakville, Ontario. Her idols include fellow club member Mark Oldershaw. “In terms of paddling I always looked up to a lot of the canoers on the National team like Mark, Tom Hall and Richard Dalton,” says Mallorie, “definitely for their technique, but also for their approach to training, racing and having fun on the job.” Fun has been an aspect of paddling Mallorie managed to keep, while balancing school, friends, and training throughout her career.

Mallorie spent her university paddling years divided into two parts: from September to May she concentrated on school, and from May to September her focus was paddling. That’s not to say Mallorie didn’t train during her studies, which was often a challenge. “There was definitely a number of school years where my winter training was not up to snuff, which meant I had a lot of work to do come May- I like to think that I got better about that over the years,” says Mallorie, “I was always excited about what I was studying so it was never a chore for me. The ethic of ‘put your head down and get it done’ that is so prolific in paddling definitely served me in successfully getting through my undergrad.”

Mallorie completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, just outside of the Kensington Market. Being able to live and study in downtown Toronto fulfilled her dream of “cruising through Kensington on a bike wearing a sweet vintage dress,” and fuelled her interested in Canadian Aboriginal studies. Mallorie says she had a general sense of wanting to have a career where she “might be a positive force in the world.” She was happy to be in a small program that allowed her “the flexibility to pursue individual interests.” Specifically, sprint canoe.

The overlap of studying and paddling is a tough one, Mallorie recalls:

I have memories of being in Florida training, up at 2 a.m. crying over my computer, because I have a 20-page history paper to write and a time control in the morning.

“That definitely sucked, but when you can get through that, everything else seems like small beans.” The year I roomed with Mallorie during spring camp, I woke up in the early hours on the morning of her departure. She was finishing a presentation- one she would give after traveling by plane and public transit directly to class, accompanied by several pounds of luggage and her paddle.

Like many high performance athlete students, Mallorie balanced school, rent, and living expenses, on top of training camp and membership costs. Sometimes it could be stressful budgeting for Florida and returning to school broke. She recalls pulling an all-nighter in the library to finish an assignment the day after training camp- unable to afford the aid of coffee: “Not even on credit! I just sat there sipping water all night. That was a low point.” Typically, Canadian female canoers pay for transportation to camp, accommodation for the duration of camp, a coaching fee, club membership fees, and other minor expenses. As well as earning Ontario’s Quest for Gold funding, Mallorie worked student promotions and coached dragon boat to help support her paddling career.

Mallorie’s years of hard work paid off. Mallorie has won countless National and international titles, including four Canada Summer Games titles, thirty-one National titles, twelve Pan American titles, and set six Canadian national records.  Internationally, she defines her biggest achievement to be her C-2 500m win with World Champion Laurence Vincent Lapointe in Hungary, 2011:

It meant a lot more than when we had won it the previous year because the competition was a lot stronger, the venue and crowd were amazing and it counted as a full medal event. It felt like the real deal.

The following summer, Mallorie decided to embark on an adventure: volunteering at the London Olympics. She worked as a bartender where she constantly overheard that “gender equity” had been “achieved” that Olympic year. During this time, Mallorie realized that the Olympics were on a level that every paddler should have the chance to race at. “Seeing it without all the television production value, I realized that as cool as it is, it’s just another regatta, and there is no reason that someone like me couldn’t be there as a competitor.” Though Mallorie had an amazing experience, it served as a reminder that women’s canoe still has to fight for participation in the Olympics. She says that the quality of female canoers is improving every year through club and provincial level support, adding that she hopes Canada will continue to invest more into developing their female canoers to maintain strong international results.

After six years of paddling and studying, Mallorie graduated from the University of Toronto and was accepted into the University of Victoria. She currently lives on Vancouver Island in Victoria, B.C., working towards her Masters in Dispute Resolution. She describes Victoria as a beautiful city with year-round paddling. A vegetarian since age seventeen, Mallorie can also appreciate the numerous vegetarian restaurants her new town has to offer.  “UVic is super laidback,” says Mallorie, “a definite change of pace from the University of Toronto.”  She is interested in writing her thesis on self-governing First Nations agreements and the modern treaty process, hoping to work in treaty negotiations.

When I asked Mallorie about the struggle of keeping paddling in perspective with life, she responded that she never quite resolved the tension between the two: “Whenever I was in the paddling world I often felt like I didn’t quite fit, or that I had one foot out the door. Now that I am in exile, it’s obvious that I’m not a perfect fit in the civilian world either. Sports mentality informs so much of my thinking now, and I suspect it’s in there for good… I guess its just a matter of having different facets of your personality that you tap into in different contexts, and always defining yourself by what makes you distinct."

In paddling I felt that my passions outside of paddling really defined me, now I think the opposite. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

Today, Mallorie still spends time on the water, coaching dragonboat and padding her C-1 when she has time. She also tried surfing. “I’m really bad, but I love it,” claims Mallorie, “When you’ve been in sports for so long it’s so demoralizing and so exhilarating to start a new one from the absolute bottom. It was really exciting to feel that for once, activity-wise, I could do whatever I wanted.” Mallorie uses her newfound freedom to try to focus on other activities, such as running half-marathons, teaching spin classes, and building the rudimentary furniture in her apartment out of shipping pallets. Possibly not by choice.

Mallorie’s positive approach to life is manifested in her success as a canoer. She will always have a place in paddling, as an athlete and role model for my generation of aspiring champions. We can all draw from Mallorie’s passion and dedication on the water and apply it to life as she does.