the Annandale track, and by the end of her first year of high school had found the podium at the provincial and national level. She even set a new OFSAA record in triple jump. “I started to think that maybe I could get a full-ride scholarship at a U.S. college, or even compete in the Olympics,” she confesses. But in the fall of her grade 10 year, a devastating knee injury put Kubet’s athletic dreams on ice. She spent months waiting for an MRI, then two years waiting for reconstructive surgery. “It was hard not being able to be active,” she says. “But the upshot of getting hurt was I discovered physiotherapy. I did a co-op placement at the clinic where I was a patient and ended up working part time until I graduated.” In her spare time, Kubet hung out with friends or watched her brother row on Lake Lisgar. “One day he asked me to come out and join him,” she says. “I found rowing didn’t injure my
That encounter prompted Kubet to attend an indoor training session where she shocked everyone—including herself—by pulling a top ERG score on the day. She not only made the team, she went on to become the first black female rower to represent Canada at the world championships. chance Over the next two years, she won four world championship medals—two silver and two bronze. She even punched her ticket to the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Although a stress fracture kept her out of competition, watching her teammates on the women’s eight crew win a bronze medal was thrilling just the same. Canada's eights power to second place in their repechage heat to advance to the semi-finals in Women's Eights at the World Rowing Championships in St. Catharines, Ont. on Aug. 25, 1999. Kubet Weston is fourth from the left. (CP PHOTO/Frank Gunn)
knee so I stuck with it for a season. I just did it for the joy of it, really.” When it came time for university, Kubet was offered a rare direct entry into the physiotherapy program at the University of Toronto. Arriving on campus in 1993, her days as a track star and aspiring varsity athlete seemed like a lifetime ago. But then came the conversation that would change everything. “This friendly girl came up to me in the athletic centre and said, ‘You’re tall. Would you like to try rowing?’”
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