“We're 130 days away,” says Avalon Wasteneys of Paris2024. The Team Canada rower and Olympic gold medallist then admits she doesn't know the exact number. “Don't just count the days, make the days count,” she says, quoting her coach's message on the team's whiteboard countdown during the last Summer Olympics, in Tokyo.

I thought that was really cool,” says Wasteneys, “being present in everyday instead of focusing on how each day you're getting closer.”

Today is a “day off” for Wasteneys (even with a solo training session ahead of her), so she's been making the most of it - whatever the ticking timer says. And whatever is on her agenda, it's intense. “For our sport, a lot of volume is necessary,” says Wasteneys, which translates to hours and hours of workouts every day of the countdown to Paris 2024. Besides the actual rowing in preparation for the women's eight race, each week she has at least three sessions with weights, plus cross-training. On this particular day it's a long bike ride.

When Wasteneys is attending classes at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, driving between school, her home in Esquimalt and the training centre in Duncan, her typical day stretches to 13 hours or more. It's part of the grind - and joy - of being an Olympic athlete. In the mix are unexpected setbacks, from relapses after a bout of mono to multiple cases of COVID-19. These health challenges have messed with the consistency and intensity of Wasteneys' training - and her confidence - but she's bounced back, as she has before.

Wasteneys' rowing career began on the UVic novice team in 2015 after she switched from competitive cross-country skiing. “It was such a huge decision,” she says. “I had been a very passionate, very competitive cross-country skier since the age of four or five.” Then her long-time mentor and coach suddenly died, and she became disillusioned and adrift.

Wasteneys' parents, both elite rowers themselves, understood she was losing her focus and passion for competitive skiing. Yet her mom, who also raced at the Olympic level (Seoul 1988), knew Wasteneys wasn't ready to give up being an athlete. And when her dad suggested it was time for a new adventure, she pivoted to UVic because of its strong novice and varsity rowing program. “I applied last-minute, packed up my stuff, went to the tryouts and, yeah, made the team,” she says.

Wasteneys had almost no prior experience in a racing shell. “I think I had maybe hopped in a single a couple times,” she says. 6 years later, she won a gold medal in Tokyo. Now, at26, Wasteneys is the “quote unquote seasoned veteran,” as she puts it, and “the one sharing my experiences with younger athletes. And that is a very different dynamic.”

This story has been edited and condensed for clarity. Read the original version in the Spring/Summer 2024 edition of driver magazine.

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