\u201cIt doesn\u2019t even sound real yet,\u201d chuckled MacKenzie when asked what that sounds like to her during an interview with The Laker News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt sounds weird saying it out loud, but it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While MacKenzie and C2, 500-metre partner Katie Vincent have known since the end of May they would be representing Canada at the Paris 2024 Olympics, the official word came when Canoe Kayak Canada announced the Paris 2024 team on June 24 after trials in Montreal, Que.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MacKenzie, who calls Windsor Junction home, and Vincent qualified the C2 boat for an Olympic quota spot last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that didn\u2019t mean they got to go, they had tor ace well and get good results, which they did, leading to Canoe Kayak Canada naming them for the C2 boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ADVERTISEMENT;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”71″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”192″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n MacKenzie\u2019s excitement oozed from her as she spoke inside the Fall River Dairy Queen on Tuesday afternoon after her second practice of the day in Waverley at her home club Cheema Aquatic Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a dream for any athlete since being a little kid (to make the Olympics),\u201d said MacKenzie, a Lockview High alum. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it\u2019s come true. I\u2019m so grateful and so excited.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have everyone to thank, my family, my friends, my past coaches, my current coaches, all of our staff and anyone who has been part of the journey along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said being named to the Olympic team officially with Vincent will allow the duo to showcase to the world why they are wearing the Maple Leaf on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt means we get to show the hard work, the dedication, and all the time and effort we put in the past how many ever years of training,\u201d said MacKenzie. \u201cIt\u2019s the greatest honour to represent Canada at the biggest games of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”111″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”8″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the last Olympics was pushed out a year due to the pandemic, that\u2019s meant there\u2019s only been three years in between. During that time, MacKenize and Vincent have been busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe past three years have been incredibly hard with training, sometimes training four times a day, normally with Sunday off depending on the time of the year,\u201d said MacKenzie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work. It\u2019s a lot of sacrifice, but it\u2019s all worth it in the end to be able to compete at the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n She is already envisioning lining up on the race course with thousands of fans screaming and cheering along it\u2014and more back home in Windsor Junction and Cheema\u2014for the big race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThinking about lining up on the race course I definitely have some butterflies going on, but I\u2019m very excited,\u201d said MacKenzie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She and Katie already have their mindset on what they want to achieve in Paris 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKatie and I, my C2 partner, we\u2019re going to go for gold and just give it our all,\u201d she said confidently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”105″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”93″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n MacKenzie was asked how she can work to temper her nervousness to put that into energy she can use as they canoe down the race course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have some mental performance tricks that I work on for sure,\u201d she said. \u201cI like to hum to myself in my head some Taylor Swift songs before racing just to not think about racing until its go time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said Vincent is helping her prepare for her first-ever Olympic games. Vincent medalled with a teammate in the C2, 500-metres at the Tokyo Olympics bringing home bronze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe has been a mentor and giving me tips, tricks, and really good advice to prepare,\u201d said MacKenzie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The support has been great from the community back home here in Fall River and area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am just so grateful so many people are in my corner, and not only my family and friends, my club Cheema, my coaches,\u201d she said. \u201cThey all have been so helpful, so amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”54″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”115″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was asked what type of message it sends young athletes when she is from a small town like Windsor Junction and has made it to the Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it shows that it\u2019s possible for anyone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you want it bad enough and you put in the work, why can\u2019t it be you? It has to be somebody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI say just go for it, give it your best, and you never know what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n MacKenzie and Vincent compete during the second week of the Olympic games Aug 6-10. Their dates they are scheduled to compete are Aug 6 and Aug. 9. The duo will get to attend the closing ceremonies since they\u2019re competing in the second week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also named to the Olympic team from the local area were from Cheema assistant coach Anna Hetzler, formerly of Fall River but now calls Waverley home; and Michelle Russell of Fall River who now competes out of Abenaki. Russell will compete in women\u2019s kayak events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”127″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”210″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Canoe Kayak Canada, Canadian Olympic Committee, and the Canadian Paralympic Committee announced the roster of Team Canada Canoe\/Kayak<\/p>\n\n\n\n The list of athletes nominated to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Canoe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sophia Jensen<\/a> \u2013 Cascades (besides Vincent and MacKenzie) Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka<\/a> \u2013 Rideau Canoe Club Connor Fitzpatrick<\/a> \u2013 Senobe Aquatic Club Laurent Lavigne<\/a> \u2013 Club de canoe-kayak de vitesse de Trois-Rivi\u00e8res Para Athletes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brianna Hennessy<\/a> \u2013 Ottawa River Canoe Club The athletes were selected for Team Canada based on their performances at Canoe Kayak Canada\u2019s Sprint National Team Trials that were held at the Montreal Olympic Basin over the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russell will make her second Olympic appearance. She competed in the women\u2019s K-1 200m, K-1 500m and K-4 500m at Tokyo 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She won gold in K-1 500m at Santiago 2023, qualified Canada an Olympic spot in the K-1 500m by placing sixth at the 2023 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”206″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”34″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [adrotate banner=”169″] [adrotate banner=”78″] FALL RIVER: Sloan MacKenzie, Olympian. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t even sound real yet,\u201d chuckled MacKenzie when asked what that sounds like to her during an interview with The Laker News. \u201cIt sounds weird saying it out loud, but it\u2019s amazing.\u201d While MacKenzie and C2, 500-metre partner Katie Vincent have known since the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957,21],"tags":[556,5351,48,2028,5667,4703,739,545,40],"class_list":["post-46401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-sports","tag-canoe-kayak-canada","tag-katie-vincent","tag-n-s","tag-olympics","tag-paris-2024","tag-paris-2024-olympics","tag-sloan-mackenzie","tag-team-canada","tag-windsor-junction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Women\u2019s Kayak<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Natalie Davison<\/a> \u2013 Rideau Canoe Club
Riley Melanson<\/a> \u2013 Senobe Aquatic Club
Michelle Russell<\/a> \u2013 Abenaki Aquatic Club
Courtney Stott<\/a> \u2013 Balmy Beach Canoe Club
Men\u2019s Canoe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Men\u2019s Kayak<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nicholas Matveev<\/a> \u2013 Balmy Beach Canoe Club
Simon McTavish<\/a> \u2013 Mississauga Canoe Club
Pierre-Luc Poulin<\/a> \u2013 Club de Canoe-Kayak Lac Beauport<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erica Scarff<\/a> \u2013 Mississauga Canoe Club
Mathieu St-Pierre<\/a> \u2013 Club de canotage du Shawinigan <\/p>\n\n\n\n