James Cartwright-Garland, is Canada's most successful racers in whitewater slalom canoeing and he hopes break new ground at the Athens Olympics by cracking the top-eight. Cartwright-Garland earned an Olympic berth after placing eighth at a World Cup on the new Olympic course in Athens this past March, the second best international result of his career. He was seventh at the worlds last year.
"It was a lot of pressure to train through the whole winter in order to get a top performance at the World Cup," said Cartwright-Garland, 15th in his Olympic debut four years ago in Sydney. "To place eighth against such a big and strong field at the Olympic venue is very encouraging."
"It's big whitewater and it is very challenging," he added about the new course. "It's similar to the course at Bourg-St-Maurice (France) where the worlds were held last year. I tend to do better under those conditions."
As a youngster, Cartwright-Garland wanted to compete in the Olympics as a swimmer but switched to paddling when his family moved to Vancouver.
