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VICTORIA - The average height of a female rower at the Olympics is between 5'10" and 6'1"—Vikes alumna and Tokyo bronze medalist Caileigh Filmer stands just 5'7", one of the smallest athletes in the field.
Her height is one of the reasons Filmer's mother Helena, who also happens to be a former Vike and national team rower, initially discouraged her daughter from getting into competitive rowing.
"I was worried the sport was going to be too hard on her and would always be an uphill battle. As a mom, you want your child to be happy and to love what they're doing. Once it became clear she enjoyed it, that's all that mattered."
But, height proved to be no obstacle for Filmer, whose athletic abilities and conditioning led her to the top of the sport. Filmer is an outlier, and one could argue that to be the best in the world at anything, being an outlier is a requirement.
An outlier is anyone or anything that lies outside the normal range. Waking up at 5 a.m., training twice a day for years on end, battling through injury, balancing an education, training through a pandemic, and managing mental health is anything but normal, but that's exactly what it takes to be a champion.
Filmer and partner Hillary Janssens of UBC returned home from Tokyo last week 2lbs heavier thanks to the new Olympic hardware draped around their necks. The duo took home the bronze medal in the women's pair event 0.65 of a second behind the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), in a total time of 6:52.10 as New Zealand took the gold medal.
For the Canadian pair, the road to Tokyo was anything but smooth and to clinch a podium spot on the world stage made the last few years of training and adversity worth every second.
"It feels like winning gold to us. Finishing the race and leaving everything we had out there, knowing everything we've overcome—this year has been absolutely insane," said Filmer, who has been open about her struggles with clinical depression, sharing her journal on Instagram.
"With my mental health issues, and injuries, there were many times over the past year we thought that there was no way we could make it. Thanks to the strength of our partnership, we just decided to support each other and accept the journey we were on and trust that it would be good enough."
Leading up to the Games, Filmer broke her collarbone in a bike crash, while Janssens was off the water for three months with a back injury. With much of their preparation time spent on spin bikes rather than in the boat, they knew that their fitness would be the key and it would come down to heart.
There was no looking around going into the final race; it was head down, eyes forward, and pure grit and determination that got the pair across the line.
"We knew we were going to have to make it hurt a lot. We focussed only on the things we could control, we didn't look at what anyone else was doing. We pushed hard from the start and held on," said Filmer.
According to Filmer's mother, watching at home from Victoria was stressful.
"It's tough watching as a parent; you're so nervous. There is your kid on TV, and you just want what they want. All I wanted was for her to come home happy and to feel good about what happened. As a parent, you have no control, and you just want to be there and help, but there is nothing you can do but hope it works out the way they want it to," she said.
Regardless of the stress, Filmer and Janssens capped off the last four years in the best way imaginable returning home all smiles.
Standing just 5'7", Filmer can now call herself a two-time Olympian, a bronze medalist, and an outlier.
