The Hamilton Spectator from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada • 88

to real SP2 THE SATURDAY, HAMILTON AUGUST SPECTATOR 28, 2004 OLYMPICS 2004 ATHENS GAMES 'IT WAS AWESOME. I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE' Kayaking gave medallist a focus Van Koeverden started kayaking at age 13; but it was happenstance JOHN KERNAGHAN ATHENS But for a couple of fateful moments, Adam Van Koeverden might not have been paddling at all, let alone to a bronze for Canada at the Olympics yesterday and in search of more precious metal early this morning. The first pivotal turn of events came on a dock in Italy in 1956 as his mother, Beata Bokrossy, then two, waited in her mother's arms for a ship to take their family to a new land. The family, dodging border patrols, walked out of Hungary as the 1956 revolution erupted and Soviet authorities moved to crush the uprising. "Two ships were coming from countries who would take us," Bokrossy's mother Irene told her many years later, "one Canadian, one Australian.

We would take the first one. The Canadian one arrived first." So, with only the clothes on their backs, the family started for a new land, displaced persons (DPs) with no English. "It was years before my mother would talk about it. How they left everything behind and walked for days." And Bokrossy recalls the catcalls of "dirty DP" growing up in waspish Toronto. "Maybe that's where Adam gets some of his determination," said Bokrossy, "from people who had to leave everything and make a new life in a strange land." Bokrossy married Joe Van Koeverden.

They had Adam and settled in Oakville where the precocious child was put in gifted programs throughout grade and high KIN CHEUNG, REUTERS New Zealand's Ben Fouhy, left, Norway's Eirik Larsen and Canada's Adam Van Koeverden. schools. "He always has grasped things quickly," says Joe, "and was bored in school. He'd pick up a guitar and in six months be playing beautifully. But he didn't dig into anything like he dug into kayaking." That was the second bit of happenstance.

Bokrossy was reading the weekly paper when she saw an article about an open house for the Burloak Canoe Club. "It was one of those, 'hey, do you want to check that out' things. And he was in the mood to look at it. It was a fall program and Adam showed some interest. He was 13 and was searching around for something.

I was worried, kids with brains and time on their hands end up on street corners." A few years later, he was getting her up at 5 a.m. for training sessions at the club. "It changed his life. He would do everything at the last moment before that. When he found this sport, he became a very focused and well- organized person." She says he told her on one of those 5 a.m.

trips that it was the challenge of the kayak that lured him and hooked him. "Many things were easy for him. This was something he had to work hard at. He just loved it. It was the first thing that everything he put into it equalled the gains he got out of it." With that start, his own kayak and his first paddle from grandfather Elmer, who was a wins silver for Canada ATHENS It was nine years ago that a young volunteer working at a World Cup mountain bike race at Mont -Anne, became swept up in the emotion of the riders.

"I was looking at the girls and the feelings they seemed to have at the finish line," Marie- remembered with a smile. "All the effort they gave. "That's what I wanted to do." created her own excitement and enthusiasm yesterday when she rode to a silver medal in the women's mountain bike race at the Olympics Games. "It's hard to describe what I'm actually feeling," said who up until last year worked with her mother as a house painter. "I'm so happy.

"It's a feeling I hope to share with everybody." Canadian flags waved and pumped her fist in the air after crossing the finish line 59 seconds behind winner Gunn- -Rita Dahle of Norway. Back home in Chateau -Richer, about 150 family and friends had gathered in her parent's backyard to watch the race on television. 26, laboured through blistering 30-degree heat and battled a rocky, dusty course with leg -draining climbs and a white- knuckled descent to finish in one hour, 57 minutes, 50 seconds. Dahle, 31, won the race in a time of 1:56.51. Even a wonky derailer couldn't stop her from winning for the 28th time in the last 32 races she's entered since May 2003.

Germany's Sabine Spitz was third in 1:59:21. The Canadian Press gifted athlete in Hungary, Van Koeverden fashioned history yesterday. It was Canada's first medal in the sport. After the medal ceremony, he said he wanted to let the moment linger on and on. "It was awesome.

I didn't want to leave." But Van Koeverden was all business after ward, doing interviews and then he headed off to prepare for today's event, the K-1500- metre sprint, with many of the same opponents. In yesterday's 1000-metre race he made the running, bursting out of the gate to a half- -second lead over friend and onetraining partner Eirik Larsen of Norway. "It was a brave race. It's what I had to do. My strength is in the first 500, get out ahead and if everything was on my side I would have held on." Larsen reeled him in to win gold and so did New Zealand's Ben Fouhy, the world champ at the distance.

Van Koeverden won the bronze by .102 seconds over Nathan Baggaley of Australia. "Eirik and I have a funny relationship. We're competitors. At the same time we know we can contribute to each other's training. We're very respectful of each other and wish each other the best of luck." 905-526-3422 Front page caption: U.S.

wrestler Jamil Kelly, right, and Azerbaijan's Elman Asgarov square off in elimination freestyle 66-kg bout. Photo by Ricardo Mazalan, AP..