Canoe Alley
SPORTS RESULTS, EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH & MORE CANOE ALLEY
Just Keep Swimming At 77 years young, accomplished open-ocean swimmer Uli Klinke receives the Diane Stowell Most Inspiraonal Swimmer Award at the OCC Invitaonal Swim in honor of Diane Stowell. ➳ “The Diane Stowell Most Inspirational Swimmer Award was started in 2017 when the Club’s Swimming Committee decided to dedicate the OCC Invitational Swim in memory of Diane. The award perpetuates Diane’s ability to inspire others to compete to the best of their ability, regardless of their age or experience.” — OCC sports website In 2017, the award was bestowed on Liloa Stowell, Diane’s grandson who, at the time, was 11-years-old and the youngest competitor at the event. Later recipients were Ernie Leskovitz in 2018 and Kathleen Quinn in 2019. Due to the pandemic, the OCC Invitational went virtual in 2020 and 2021 and no award was given. This year’s invitational swim at the end of May was bittersweet, because as we looked down the starting line there was one obvious swimmer missing: Ulrich Klinke. More often than not, Uli— as he is aectionately known—was the winner of his age group in almost every race he entered, often challenging the lead swimmers. But the morning of
this year’s swim, rather than fighting through the swimmers at the start, fighting to be the first to the turn buoy, fighting the current on the way in or fighting his way up the beach to a photo finish, Uli was receiving his eighth dose of chemotherapy. As the gun went o to start the race, Uli was in a race of his own, a race for his life. This year, though she wasn’t cheering from the sidelines or racing along side him, his wife Joanne (an accomplished paddler and runner in her own right) was still beside him. She’s his greatest cheerleader, whether it be on land or in the sea. We are honored to bestow the Diane Stowell Most Inspirational Swimmer Award on Uli Klinke this year, for his sportsmanship, his athletic prowess, and his fighting spirit.
24 AMA | JULY / AUGUST 2022
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