Biomed student Toshka Besharah back in class after making Olympic debut

By Jackson Starr

A month removed from competing on the world’s biggest sports stage at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, September means back-to-school time for Team Canada kayaker Toshka Besharah just like many other 21-year-olds.

The third-year University of Ottawa student is excited to return to her studies in translational and molecular medicine, but says it is indeed a major adjustment.

“The come-down from the Olympics is definitely real – I won’t sugarcoat that to anybody who is looking to pursue an Olympic Games. It is a big change,” Besharah highlights. “I spent the last six months and obviously the last three years really pushing towards one goal, one specific outcome.

“Now that that event is over, it’s nice to have school for me. I really enjoy school. I take a lot of pride in being in school and pursuing a highly academic degree and I’m extremely excited to be back in school. That’s given me something to look forward to on my path after the Games while continuing to train, but taking a step back and really making sure that I enjoy the next four years.”

Besharah made her Olympic debut by competing in the women’s kayak four 500 metres alongside Courtney Stott, Riley Melanson and fellow Rideau Canoe Club paddler Natalie Davison in Paris. The Canadian crew didn’t get the race results there were after, as they finished 10th out of 10 boats in their event overall.

“The level of competition was so high. The depth of the field was so high in every discipline,” notes Besharah, who got a little lift from back home while wrestling with the disappointment.

“Having the support of the Rideau Canoe Club behind my back throughout the whole process, and even on the tough days when we didn’t perform as well as we expected to, having them actually on a Zoom call, in what was probably one of my most tough moments of my sporting career, they were there to cheer us on and say really kind words.”

Besharah was the youngest member of the 2024 Canadian Olympic canoe-kayak team, which meant that a big part of her objective for the Games was to learn about preparing and participating in the Olympics. She says that having more experienced teammates in her boat helped a lot in that quest.

“I really tried my best to learn everything I could from them,” signals the Ashbury College grad. “I really leaned on them and learned a lot from them in how to prepare for a race, how to race at that international level, with that same intention, regardless of the level we’re competing at.”

Besharah says she’s made big improvements in recent years to not get distracted by anything unrelated to her races. But when she wasn’t paddling down the course, she most definitely enjoyed soaking in the vibe of the electric Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, which was the innovative host venue for canoe slalom as well.

“Just having a huge crowd changes everything,” Besharah indicates. “You’ve got karaoke going on in the stands, three minutes to start. It just brought this vibrancy to our sport. I’d never experienced that environment before, and, if anything, it just made it all that more special and all that more exhilarating for me to compete.”

Even with the boisterous crowd of 20,000+, Besharah notes that she was was able to hone in on the task at hand and block out the noise.

“Before every race, I take 2-3 minutes just to visualize the race,” she details. “Make sure that I think about every step of the race, the start, middle and end. We have a very specific race plan that we follow every time we race, and we have a very specific warmup. As I progress through the warmup as the one who calls a lot of the transitions throughout our warmup, it really sets me up in a headspace that throughout the course of the 20-minute warmup, I tune out the crowd.”

Having the presence and support of her fellow Olympic rookie and veteran Rideau paddler, 32-year-old Davison, also helped put Besharah at ease.

“Sharing that experience with her was awesome,” Besharah underlines. “Natalie’s been on the team a long time and her grace and her ability to deal with challenges when they arise in such a calm manner is something I really want to be able to bring to the team of the next generation.”

Besharah also felt “very grateful” to have such great support back home, where the Rideau Canoe Club held an early-morning watch party, and in Paris from her friends and family.

“Wearing the maple leaf on the biggest stage in sports has been such a privilege and an honour,” Besharah adds. “I’ve worn it at junior and senior and Pan American Games before, but having the support of Canada behind you at the Olympic Games is a completely different feeling.”

Besharah in fine form for nationals, Rideau takes 2nd overall

After living an experience unlike any other, summer had its usual back-to-school signal for Besharah as she competed in the Canoe Kayak Canada Sprint National Championships from Aug. 20-24 in Welland, ON.

Though the event served as an opportunity for the Canadian canoe community to toast their new Olympians, Besharah was busy on the water too as she earned eight more national medals for her collection.

Still eligible for the under-23 category, Besharah was the junior women’s champion in the K-1 200 m, the K-2 200 m with Callie Loch and K-4 500 m with Loch, Beatrice Oger and Kate Osborne. She also won gold at the senior level for the C-15 500 m and K-4 500 m with Emily Best, Maren Bradley and Davison (that same crew also won silver in the open women’s race). She added silver in the open mixed C-15 500 m and bronze in junior women’s K-2 with Bradley.

Following five consecutive champion seasons, Rideau finished second in the overall club standings across all divisions behind Maskwa. The biggest swing in the standings came in the para category, where Rideau finished in a tie for second with 64 points but way back of Maskwa’s leading total of 261.

Rideau’s female paddlers powered the club’s runner-up performance as they won the U18, junior and senior women’s burgees.

The Ottawa River Canoe Club had its best showing in the Paddle-All category where it edged Rideau for third place with 48 points.

Besharah was proud to be back in Rideau Canoe Club purple for the event.

“You have ages from six to 25, and the younger kids on the team were able to easily talk to the older teammates,” outlines the two-time world U18 championships medallist. “I used to look up to some of the teammates on the senior team at our canoe club who had been to junior worlds, senior worlds, and they were always so open, willing to talk with us and share the journey and experience that they had. That community is something that’s really hard to find.

“I feel I do go to the best canoe club in Canada and I will stand by that. I’m very grateful to have grown up in such a warm and welcoming space and I do hope that the next generation continues to see that.

“I hope that being back home and training with them again over the next couple of years, I can share that with them so that the next generation feels like they too can do it, because they really can. They have all the skills and the support there.”

Several young local paddlers are indeed set to represent Canada at a premiere international U16/U17 event in short order. Rideau’s Henrik Neuspiel will compete at the Canoe Sprint Olympic Hopes Regatta from Sept. 19-22 in Hungary along with Abbigail Haines and Isabel Lowry of the Carleton Place Canoe Club.

Once Besharah returns to competition herself next season, she has her eye on earning continued success at U23 championship events over the coming final two years of eligibility in that age group, while also being in school and training at Rideau.

After that, she’ll need to decide if she wants to target another round of Olympic competition come Los Angeles 2028.

“For the next two years, I’m focused on winning medals for Canada and really making sure that I enjoy the journey before I commit to another four years fully,” she explains. “We will see how things work out.”