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Quesnel's Move For Health Day slated

Come to Move for Health Day at West Fraser Timber Park, May 7, noon – 4 p.m. and try out a new sport or activity – you never know where it might lead.

For Mike Lewis, attending a rowing Try It Out event led to an international career, an Olympic medal and much more.

Lewis is a rower on the Canadian National Team. He was born in Victoria and attended Cloverdale elementary, Reynolds secondary and the University of Victoria.

While in Grade 12, Lewis signed up for rowing after hearing inspiration speeches by two Olympic rowers who came to his high school to inspire students to get active.

But his rowing career almost derailed before it even started.

After finding out how early his first rowing practice was, Lewis decided that maybe rowing wasn’t for him.

Luckily, his mother was adamant he keep his commitment and Lewis fell in love with the sport immediately.

While attending Uof V, Lewis balanced schooling and training.

 

He graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and

for the last four years has been training full time

with the Canadian National team.

His athletic achievements include a gold medal at the 2002 Under 23 World Rowing Championships, two silver medals at the 2003 Pan American Games and was named 2003 University of Victoria’s Outstanding Male Athlete.

In 2004 he went to the Athens Olympics as a spare for the lightweight men’s four and in 2008 he competed in the Beijing Olympics winning a bronze medal in the lightweight men’s four.

Lewis will be the inspiration regarding rowing at Move for Health Day and who knows, maybe there’s a future Olympic athlete just waiting to discover the sport.