Nevin Harrison | Tokyo 2020 Olympic Profile
Team USA canoer Nevin Harrison explains how the extra year of preparation due to the COVID-19 pandemic allowed her to understand herself better and develop confidence that she can be successful in the Olympics.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NEVIN HARRISON: I'm Nevin Harrison. I am a sprint canoe athlete for Team USA. I'm the current world champion in the C1 200 meters. I first started competing as a senior athlete when I was 17. And at my first senior competition was Pan Am Games which I got a gold medal in. And then right after the world championships, which I also won. And it was really overwhelming to be a teenager and trying to understand who I am but also having all this success in my sport coming so quickly. So I've had an extra year to be more at peace with everything and sort of understand myself a little better, which has made all the stress and the pressure leading up to the games a little better.
But at the same time, it's going to be really, really crazy. That it's been again extra time for me to get better but also all my competition. So representing the United States is, it's huge. Women's Canoe, this is our first year ever being in the Olympics. Kind of similar to softball, but we've never been able to compete. And men have been doing it since I believe 1936. So it was a huge deal for us finally to be representing women because we work just as hard. Like they were saying, we put the work in. So it's really amazing that we're finally able to really put it to the test at the games.
