More on Jamie McEwan

On his website, Jamie McEwan has provided us with this brief autobiographical sketch.  It's a nice summary of his multifaceted paddling career.

After winning bronze in the '72 Olympics, Jamie backed off from slalom a bit.  The sport was dropped from the Olympic programme for Montreal in '76, and I think Jamie might have attempted to make the flatwater team during this period.  He began to get serious about slalom again in the mid '80s.  Even though the sport had changed fairly dramatically, thanks in large part to the new techniques and boat designs developed by the athletes Jamie had inspired, Jamie found a home in the C2 class with Lecky Haller as a partner.  The pair won the 1988 World Cup title, finished fourth in the 1989 world championships, and made it to the 1992 Olympics, where slalom made its return a full 20 years after Jamie's bronze-medal performance in C1.

Jamie retired from competition after the '92 Games, but re-emerged occasionally to race C2 with his son Devin.  Devin McEwan is a member of the 2014 slalom national team, and will compete in C2 with partner Casey Eichfeld in the world championships at Deep Creek, Maryland, this September.

Jamie was also an expedition paddler of note, making a first descent of North Carolina's Linville Gorge in the early '70s, exploring rivers in Bhutan, Mexico, and British Columbia, and joining his brother on a first descent of Tibet's spectacular Yarlung-Tsangpo river that saw the tragic death of former slalom teammate Doug Gordon.  This latter expedition is chronicled in two books: The Last River by Todd Balf and Courting the Diamond Sow by Wick Walker.

Though I competed in slalom through most of the 1990s, I didn't get to know Jamie until the mid 2000s.  We exchanged several e-mails over a couple of years, and then I met him in person at the 2007 Nationals at Deep Creek.  He saw my passion for the sport and treated me like no less of a peer than his fellow national team members, and I really appreciated that.

I'm seeing many kind words posted on Face Book today as the word of Jamie's passing spreads.  Perhaps the most concise and comprehensive of the ones I've read was posted by Eric Giddens, a 1996 Olympian in men's slalom kayak: "Of the few legends I have met, you may have been the most human. You will always be missed, but never forgotten."