Burloak Canoe Club (BCC) kayaker Alanna Bray-Lougheed has her sights firmly set at competing at the Olympics. But it almost never happened.
“Is this really what I want to do?” “Do I want to keep going?”
Those were questions bouncing around Bray-Lougheed’s head around this time last year. It would take a monumental performance to erase any doubts she had.
The BCC kayaker has been aiming to compete for Team Canada at the highest stage since she started kayaking at the age of 10.
“My mom wanted to enter me in a summer camp, and she chose the Canoe Kids program at Burloak,” said Bray-Lougheed. “We have a cabin up north in Muskoka, and she had just bought a canoe. She thought it would be a good summer camp to enroll me in because then I would be able to know how to use the canoe.”
The former T.A. Blakelock student fell in love with kayaking immediately, and she registered for more camps throughout her childhood. From there, Bray-Lougheed would continue to excel in the sport.
The notation of kayaking events may seem awkward, but it is rather very simple. K stands for “kayak” (as compared to canoeing events, where the letter would be a C), and the number after the dash represents how many athletes are in each kayak. Bray-Lougheed competes predominantly in the K-2 500m and K-4 500m events and has success in both boats.
However, Bray-Lougheed does use the K-1 boat extensively.
“For all our national selection races, we have to compete in our single,” said the BCC kayaker. “90-95% of my training is done in my K-1, but for me, I get a lot more out of training with my teammates in one boat, setting a goal together, and working towards that. I find it a lot more enjoyable to do something with a team than by myself.”
The selection for the K-2 and K-4 boats at the national trials varies from year-to-year.
“Some years, it’s based on the K-1 at our trials; the best four people might be put in a K-4,” said Bray-Lougheed. “Sometimes, it’s a race at our national trials in a K-2 or a K-4, and the winner will be selected. In terms of the Olympic selection, which unfortunately didn’t happen this year, it’s the crew boat races. The winner of the K-2 and the K-4 races would be selected.”
Like any athlete, Bray-Lougheed went through a period when she was out of form. It made her question whether she wanted to continue kayaking.
“I felt I wasn’t reaching my goals in my K-1 races and my crew boat races,” said Bray-Lougheed. “It was really hard going over my training program the past year, analyzing it, and asking myself, ‘Is this really what I want to do?’ and ‘Do I want to keep going?’.”
Bray-Lougheed stuck with it, and it paid off, earning her a spot on the Canadian roster at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
“I races the K-2 and the K-4 with some of my closest friends and they were some of the best races I ever had,” said Bray-Lougheed. “Having that feeling again of being successful was awesome.”
And how. She won gold in both events.
As you can imagine, it takes a lot of on-water training to compete for an Olympic roster spot.
“The two years leading into the Olympics, we’ve been paddling a lot more than we usually do,” said Bray-Lougheed. “Usually our season starts in Canada around April; that’s when we’re able to safely get on the water, and it ends around November. Then we have our off-water training from November to April.”
This time around, Bray-Lougheed and her teammates have increased their on-water time.
“When our on-water training ends in Canada, we travel down to Florida, and we stay there until April when we’re able to start paddling in Canada,” elaborated Bray-Lougheed. “The past few years, we’ve been paddling every day of the year. To supplement the paddling training, we do 3-4 weight sessions a week and a few runs in a week. If there’s a period of time when we’re really not able to paddle and we’re back in Canada, we ramp up the weights, running, swimming, and cross-country skiing.”
This year’s worldwide COVID-19 outbreak forced changes to Bray-Lougheed’s training schedule. She remembers where she was when the announcement came.
“I was in Florida when we were first notified that we had to come home,” said Bray-Lougheed. “We were really in the thick of getting ready for our Olympic selection race, which was in the middle of April. In mid-March, we found out that our training camp was finished, and we had to come to Canada.”
But instead of returning home, Bray-Lougheed made other arrangements.
“I chose to come to Quebec with my boyfriend because we decided we would be able to have a better setup for indoor training at his family’s home,” explained Bray-Lougheed. “We were able to get a lot of free weights from the local canoe club and bring them into his basement. We also have a kayaking machine, which is like a treadmill but for kayaking indoors, bike trainer, and we do lots of running.”
The weather is turning for the better, which has come as a big relief for Bray-Lougheed.
“In Quebec, it’s gotten warm enough that most of the water in the lakes are unfrozen, so we can start paddling in a safe way with life jackets and maintaining our distance,” said the former Blakelock student.
Outside the golden Pan Am races, Bray-Lougheed’s most memorable race was one of her first races representing Team Canada. Her K-4 team’s performance at the 2015 U23 World Championships in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal stood out to her, given the Canadian history in this discipline.
“Our K-4 crew spent the whole summer training together, and we set a goal to be in the Top 5 in the world,” said Bray-Lougheed. “Before that, it had been a long time before a crew finished as high as eighth place in the world. We ended up finishing fifth, which was awesome. Especially because most of us were competing internationally for the first time.”
When the roster for the Tokyo Olympics are announced, look for Bray-Lougheed’s name to be included among the kayakers. With experience like she’s got, the sky’s the limit for Bray-Lougheed.
Alanna Bray-Lougheed is a recipient of the CAN Fund #150Women. You can donate to CAN Fund here. You can also register for programs at the Burloak Canoe Club here when it reopens.