David Ford simply refuses to hang up his paddle.
His hair, once sandy-coloured is flecked with grey now, which is also the colour of the rough stubble decorating his chin. But at age 47, the 1999 whitewater kayak world champion has qualified for another World Cup season.
Two years ago, after a partly severed tendon in his left elbow proved to be a key factor in failing to qualify for a sixth consecutive Olympics — he was fourth in Athens in 2004 and sixth at Beijing in 2008 — it appeared as if the longtime Chilliwack resident might finally end his competitive career.
“I was going to finish after London (2012), that was always the plan,” Ford, who moved to Canmore, Alta., a year ago, said Sunday during the Canadian team trials at the Rutherford Creek artificial slalom course.
“But after I got hurt, I didn’t want to finish on an injury.”
He finished fourth at the Olympic team trials in April of 2012 with that nearly useless left arm and took the summer World Cup season off to let it fully heal. It was the first full season he had missed since the circuit started in 1988.
It was tough, he said, watching races on television.
“But at the same time, I think I recharged my batteries a little bit.”
The 2013 season wasn’t great, with a couple of finishes in the 40s and a best result of 22nd in Slovakia. But with this year’s world championships in North America — Maryland in September — he decided to give it at least one more year.
“And then at the end of the year, re-evaluate for Rio.”
Wait a second, he’s still youthful looking despite that grey, but hanging in to take a shot at going to the 2016 Olympics at age 49?
“I just love the sport so much … and I have sponsors still who are willing to see how far we can push this age thing.”
Ford noted that two-time Olympic women’s gold medallist Stepanka Hilgertova of the Czech Republic, who is just six months younger, is still competing. Hilgertova won team gold at last year’s worlds in Prague and has a son who has competed on the World Cup circuit.
Ford won’t be waiting around for his son to join him. Cooper Ford is, after all, only five months old.
“If I’m still around when he’s paddling a kayak, you can take me out back and shoot me.”
Ford, whose biceps and forearms are as sculpted as those of an arm wrestler, still has a smooth and very controlled stroke.
On the challenging Rutherford Creek course, he won two of the four men’s K1 heats on the weekend, while Ben Hayward, 24, of Edmonton took the other two. Michael Tayler, a 22-year-old from Ottawa who surprisingly earned Canada’s only Olympic spot in 2012, was third and also qualified for the World Cup circuit.
“David’s the most consistent paddler I’ve ever seen racing,” said Hayward. “He’s able to just lay down solid, clean runs every single time.”
Hayward had Canada’s best results on the five-race World Cup circuit last season, with 12th- and 15th-place finishes. Ford struggled early, before closing the year with finishes of 26th and 22nd.
“My mistakes were catastrophic, but every World Cup I’d have longer and longer sections that were really good,” said Ford, who was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. “And then I’d shoot myself in the foot here and there. But then I come home and I beat Ben handily … so I feel like what’s there is there, it’s just getting it out when I need it.”
Ford, who has had battles over the years with Canoe Kayak Canada, no longer receives athlete carding ($1,800 a month from Sport Canada). He says it’s because of his age. Whitewater high-performance director James Cartwright says Ford’s results simply don’t meet the standards required under new federation policies.
“It has nothing to do with age,” said Cartwright. “David’s been carded for over 20 years, so we expect his (international) performances to be better than someone who has never been carded.”
Cartwright does concede, however, that the federation is fortunate Ford is still around because “he’s an excellent role model for aspiring national team athletes. His professionalism and dedication to excellence is second to none.”
Ford, who earns some income through motivational speaking gigs and contract work coaching Japanese kayakers, basically self-funds his passion.
Fortunately, he also has a couple of supportive sponsors. Quantum Pacific Capital, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm with a Canadian CEO, has been with him for a few years and Teck, a longtime supporter of his wife — retired Olympic alpine skier Kelly VanderBeek — recently stepped up to replace a former mining company sponsor dealing with a hostile takeover.
“Kelly and I have both been very fortunate through our careers to establish a brand, a philosophy that people are willing to support. And we’ve been very lucky, where a lot of Canadian athletes are not.
“We’ve done well enough that doing this now isn’t going to hurt our future. And with Cooper we’re both home and present and that’s the real gift, watching him in his first year.”
Ford’s goal this season, which begins with races in England, Slovenia and the Czech Republic in June, is to make a couple 10-paddler finals. With fields sometimes 70 paddlers deep and the competition so tight at the top, that won’t be easy.
“Once you’re in the final, though, who knows what can happen. It’s a roll of the dice.”
Ford would also love to do something special at this year’s worlds, which is one of the reasons why he’s still undecided about competing in the two European World Cups in August.
“There are training camps in the U.S. for worlds, so it’s about taking care of the body. There aren’t a lot of sport scientists who know how to manage a 47-year-old, high-performing athlete.
“We’re kind of reinventing the wheel a little bit, so we’ll see how I feel because I’d like to have as good a shot as I can at worlds.”
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