Mike Scarola endured the toughest four months of his career in earning his nomination to the Canadian Olympic team with partner Richard Dalton in the C-2 1,000 metres. "It feels surreal to be going to the Olympics," said Scarola, who joined forces with Dalton in 1999. The pair just missed qualifying for the 2000 Games. "It's been an incredibly difficult year."
Scarola and Dalton had their backs up to the wall after losing the first qualifying race by a narrow margin at the Pan Am qualifier in April to Canadians Dmitri Joukovski and Maxime Boilard. Their victory actually earned Canada a spot in the event at the Olympics. However they needed to win another race at a designated event to rubber stamp their ticket to Athens.
But Scarola and Dalton won the second qualifier at team trials in May to set up the final showdown at a World Cup in the Czech Republic. However Canadian team members lost their luggage and paddles when they landed in Europe. So it was decided the Czech World Cup would not finalize the Olympic spot in the C-2 1,000. At that event, Joukovski and Boilard actually finished ahead of Dalton and Scarola.
The following weekend at a World Cup in Germany, Scarola and Dalton finally took the spot finishing second while Joukovski and Boilard were fourth.
In 2000, Scarola and Dalton were named Nova Scotia Team of the Year. Scarola is currently a student at Dalhousie University where he is working on his MBA.
