Monday photo feature

Maryland native Cathy Hearn started winning medals at the whitewater world championships before I'd ever even heard of the sport.

In 1977, Cathy was part of the bronze-winning team in the ladies' kayak slalom class at the world championships at Spittal, Austria.  Two years later, she claimed gold medals in both individual and team women's kayak slalom, and added another team gold in women's kayak wildwater, at Jonquiere, Quebec.

In 1981, Cathy attended the worlds at Bala, Wales, and medaled again, winning individual silver and team bronze in women's kayak slalom.  By this time I was finally aware of whitewater racing: '81 was the summer I got serious about paddling at camp, and I remember taking a trip to the Nantahala River and seeing slalom gates on the river and slalom and wildwater boats on top of cars.

Cathy came home empty-handed from the worlds in '83 and '85, but in '87 she was part of the bronze-winning women's kayak slalom team.  In '89 the worlds came to the U.S. for the first time, on Maryland's Savage River.  In ladies' kayak slalom, Cathy won bronze in individual competition and silver in team.

In 1992, whitewater slalom returned to the Olympic programme for the first time in 20 years, and Cathy made the U.S. team for Barcelona.  She didn't medal there, but the following year she won another slalom worlds medal as part of the women's kayak team that took bronze at Mezzana, Italy.

In 1994 or so I finally got into slalom racing myself, and Cathy was still around.  She made another Olympic team in 1996, and in 1997 she won another medal at the worlds, claiming the individual bronze in women's kayak slalom at Tres Coroas, Brazil.

I took the photo of Cathy above during a practice day at the U.S. team trials at Wausau, Wisconsin, in 1998, the first year I qualified to race at the trials myself.  She would race three more seasons and earn a chance to race a world championships in the U.S. again, on Tennessee's Ocoee River in 2001.  Sadly, that worlds was canceled in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.  It was an abrupt end for a career that spanned nearly a quarter-century.


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