“She asked for $50 and some door prizes,” Bush recalled.
But the more the self-assured teenager from Plover, Wisconsin, talked, the more she intrigued Bush. She handed him a copy of her rèsumè, which already listed several first- and second-place finishes in national whitewater canoe races.
“This was one put together 13-year-old; a very dialed-in young woman. I was so impressed with her,” Bush said.
Thompson, however, remembers being the one in awe. “As soon as I told him I canoed, he said, ‘Consider yourself sponsored.’”
Bush then escorted Thompson to several of his vendors’ booths at the expo, introduced her as his niece, and secured several other material sponsorships for her on the spot. She received a high-end wet suit, PDF and paddle, among other things.
“Everyone saw in her the same thing I did,” he said.
And for that, Bush himself gave Thompson her first racing boat – a 3.5-meter-long, C-1 single canoe she kneels in and maneuvers with a single-sided paddle.
“She started crying,” Bush said. “But I can’t think of a better way to spend $2,000 if it gets an ambassador like Hailey out into the paddling world.”
Two years later, Thompson is still the only paddler so extensively supported by Rutabaga. “Where I’ve been putting my eggs is in Hailey’s basket,” Bush stated.
That confidence in her appears warranted. Since Thompson’s association with Rutabaga began, she has become the Junior Olympics Overall Champion three times (as well as winning the JO freestyle, extreme slalom and boater cross events) and Junior Women Midwest Freestyle Champion.
In 2009 alone, she took first-place honors at the U.S. Open, U.S. Nationals, the World Series U.S. Open and Junior National Team trials. Only at the 2009 World Championships did she rank in the double digits.
During the interview with Silent Sports, John Thompson discovered online for the first time that his daughter was the 2008 Junior World Series Champion in whitewater canoeing (that title appeared beneath a photo of her published on the website of the International Canoe Federation). Informed of this past achievement, Hailey Thompson reacted with surprise and humility. “I didn’t know. That’s so cool. But I’m shocked some European didn’t win that.”
Olympic dreams
Not surprised would be Joe Jacobi, executive director of USA Canoe/Kayak, who envisions Thompson leading women’s canoeing to the Olympic Games. Although women’s whitewater kayaking is an Olympic sport, the equivalent canoeing event – Thompson’s specialty – is not. But Jacobi believes it will be a medal event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“Hailey will still be a junior athlete then,” Jacobi said. “And she’s one of our highest-profile athletes now.”
Jacobi watched Thompson compete at the Canoe Slalom World Championships in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain, last September. Although Thompson finished 14th overall and out of the finals, Jacobi said she made the best of the experience as the youngest competitor there.
“She has a better idea now what it takes to stand on the podium,” said Jacobi, himself a two-time Olympian and 1992 gold medalist in men’s whitewater canoe slalom. He said Thompson could be that caliber a paddler, too, and doesn’t worry about her ability to handle such high expectations.
“She’s pretty much in the present with what she’s doing and that is being the best canoeist she can be,” Jacobi said. “She seems so engaged with life and not like she’s carrying a burden or undue pressure.”
Thompson, sitting at her kitchen counter that looks out over Jordan Pond on the Plover River, doesn’t deny having Olympic aspirations. As she talks, it is easier to imagine her honing world-class paddling skills on the flatwater in her front yard than it is to remember she’s only 15.
“I feel I probably have a shot” making it to the Olympics as a paddler, she said. “I’m definitely willing – more than willing – to go after it.”
She added, “I couldn’t tell you what college I want to go to or what I want to do for a job. But I can tell you I really want to go to the Olympics.”
Thompson admits that her chosen sport is “not well-known.” She started flatwater kayaking at age 11, but was soon attracted to the adrenaline rush of whitewater slalom canoeing. “I was lucky to have a natural inclination toward it, although I still don’t consider myself good at it,” she said.
Supportive surroundings
Jacobi notes that Thompson is fortunately “surrounded by very positive people,” not the least of which are her parents, John Thompson and Jean Buckley. The former has taken thousands of photos of his daughter competing, and the latter quit her job to accompany the teenager as she trained and raced in Switzerland, Slovenia and Spain last fall.
Unprompted, Thompson expresses emphatic gratitude for her parents’ support – and an awareness of what her passion has required of them. “I love paddling more than just about anything. It makes for a very high-maintenance child,” she said.
In late January, Thompson lucked out finding Kevin Ebel, a coach in Stevens Point near her home. Ebel, co-owner of NTS Athletic Development, coached U.S. Olympic hopefuls, including paddlers, as the strength and conditioning coordinator for U.S. Olympic Committee in Lake Placid, New York, from 1999 to 2004.
“She’s very dedicated and determined. And she wants to see the sport (of women’s whitewater canoeing) excel,” Ebel said of Thompson three weeks after first meeting her. “The big thing is to get her herself positioned, as the sport advances, to be at that higher competitive level. Good thing she has plenty of time.”
In the mean time, Thompson is determined to improve on her 2009 showing at Worlds and serve as one of 20 ambassadors of Outdoor Nation (www.outdoornation.org), an effort to get more American youths excited about the outdoors.
Jacobi sees Thompson as a natural promoter, particularly of paddling among young people. “As good a paddler as she is, she is 100 times as good a person off the water,” he said. “Whitewater canoeing is a relatively new sport and we want more girls to try it. And for them there couldn’t be a better role model than Hailey.”
Joel Patenaude is the editor of Silent Sports.
SIDEBAR NO. 1:
In her own words
After Nationals in Charlotte, North Carolina, last October:
The finals run came faster than I could have imagined possible. I was in my element, however, and with adrenaline coursing through me, I powered my way through each and every gate, not taking the time to contemplate what I was doing, just driving. I finished my run in a state of elation! I hadn’t touched a gate and had just beat not only all the women in the canoe category, but half in the men’s category as well! Standing on the podium that night, I couldn’t have been happier. I still feel like I’m on cloud nine, and I’ve been home for several days now. What a great end to my season!
After the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Spain last September:
I finished 14th. Not well enough to get into the finals. Although I was upset, I realized it was not because I wasn’t going to the podium. It was because I knew my potential and it just didn’t happen this time. Not for lack of trying, either. But the C-1 Women I was up against are phenomenal paddlers. … True, I’m disappointed that I’m not on the podium tonight. But if anything, this experience has simply made me want to work harder for next year’s Worlds. This has made we realize, that it is not only about the gold. It’s about all the experiences it takes to get to the top. In conclusion, I’ve loved every second of this trip. I have learned a lot about myself: as a paddler, competitor and person. I’ve figured out my strengths, but also my weaknesses. I have a lot of work to do in the upcoming year, but it is a challenge I’m ready to seize.
Excerpted from haileythompsonwhitewater.blogspot.com
SIDEBAR NO 2:
Wausau Whitewater
Most of Hailey Thompson’s peer competitors hail from Southern and Western states. Fortunate for her, she lives a half-hour’s drive from the Midwest’s premiere paddling courses – the Wausau Whitewater Park on the east channel of the Wisconsin River in downtown Wausau.
“With the Wausau facility, I’m so lucky. A crazy coincidence it is so close,” Thompson said.
Since the early 1980s, the venue has hosted dozens of regional, national and world competitions. Big events on the horizon include:
• April 30 & May 1-2: USA Canoe/Kayak Whitewater Jr./Sr. Slalom Team Trials
• June 11-13: Wausau RiverFest
• Aug. 21-22: Midwest Freestyle Championships
In 2012, the Wausau Whitewater Park will host the Junior World Championships for Whitewater Slalom. And Joe Jacobi, executive director of USA Canoe/Kayak, said there will be a major pre-junior worlds event there in 2011.
“Hailey will still be an eligible junior paddler in 2012, which will make her story one of the most compelling in all of paddlesports at that time. Something to keep an eye out on,” Jacobi said.
Wausau Whitewater also schedules recreational releases, at which time noncompetitive paddlers can use the course for a daily or seasonal fee between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The 2010 release dates are April 24-25, June 5, June 13, June 26-27, July 10-11, August 7-8, and September 4-5. A final flow celebration is set for September 18-19.
For more information, contact Ashley Knutson at 715/572-6197 or info@wausauwhitewater.org, or check out wausauwhitewater.org.
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