Pauline Van Roessel is one of the more incredible stories on the Canadian rowing team. She only started the sport in 1996 after she decided to return to university at age 29. But she had natural athletic ability from playing basketball in her first run through university and natural strength from growing up on a farm. By 1999 she was in Canada's fours crew at the 1999 world championships at St. Catharines, Ont. She's competed at the last four world championships capped by silver in 2002 in fours and bronze in eights last year as she rowed second from the bow.
"I was teaching for awhile and I decided I wanted a career change," said Van Roessel, who returned to school to study industrial design at the University of Alberta. "I wanted more in my life athletically and something at a high level. It came down between rowing and cycling."
