Paddlers of Century

As we celebrate the end of a spectacular century of paddling, certain individuals stand out from the crowd. Some are well known as visionaries, innovators, Olympic athletes or legendary explorers, while others have gone quietly about the business of paddling for its own sake, logging thousands of miles for nothing more than the experience itself and some entries in an obscure river journal. Many of you will have heard of these people. One of them may have discovered your favorite river or designed the boat you're sitting in. One of them may have taught you to roll. Some you've likely never heard of at all. But this group shares something in common, something more important than fame: a love of paddling and water, with a lifetime spent discovering both.

Did we miss anyone? Perhaps. And we're sure you'll let us know who it was. But like the rivers themselves, this list will always be changing; growing and evolving and shifting shapes like so many sandy beaches. What we share here is a sampling of those who've made a difference, 100 from the United States alone, whose head, heart and bow were always pointed the right direction and who, without even knowing it, took us along for the ride. The heroes of the next century are already being created. Here's to those who paved the way.

Dana Chladek
After her first run at the 1996 Olympics on Tennessee's Ocoee River, kayaker Dana Chladek was in a dismal second- to-last place. What followed is nothing short of miraculous. Putting it all on the line on her second run, she tied the winner to the nearest hundredth of a second. Although she had to settle for the silver, her time was good enough for the gold. Combined with a bronze medal at the '92 Olympics in Barcelona, she is the top slalom Olympic medal winner is U.S. history. Add two silver-medal finishes at World Championships and it's easy to see why she is now happily retired from competition, raising a family and running her Rapidstyle paddling apparel business in Kensington, Md.

Fritz and Lecky Haller
Although they've rotated partners throughout the years, achieving varying results in World Cup, Olympic and World Championship competition, C-2ers Fritz, 40, and Lecky Haller, 42, remain perhaps the best known pair of brothers in paddling. The duo's heyday came in 1983, when they shocked the world with a gold-medal performance at the World Championships in Italy. They regained their form in 1994/'95, when, after winning the final 1994 World Cup for a bronze overall, they won the first race of the '95 season. They also won the national championships that year, a title they also held in 1984. When not paired with his brother, Lecky teamed with Jamie McEwan to win the silver at the 1987 World Championships in France; the next year they were the overall champions in the inaugural World Cup and placed second in '89.

Davey Hearn
A member of the U.S. team since 1977, Bethesda, Md.'s Davey Hearn, 41, enjoys one of the longest-running canoe and kayak team tenures of any paddler, alive or dead. Highlights include Olympic C-1 appearances in 1992 and '96, as well as gold medal C-1 performances at the World Championships in 1985 and 1995. He was also named 1995's "Top 10 Sportsmen of the Year" by the U.S. Olympic Committee. With the 2000 Games on the horizon, he is showing no signs of letting up. "I'm going to keep doing this as long as I'm still having fun," he says.

Cathy Hearn
As with her brother Davey, slalom kayaker Cathy Hearn has put in more than 20 years on the U.S. Kayak team, with Olympic appearances in 1992 and '96. Far from lying in the slalom shadow of her brothers (brother Bill is also an accomplished slalom paddler), one of her crowning moments came in 1979 when she won the gold at the World Championships, and won three of four possible golds in every event she entered. One of the most diligent female kayakers on the slalom scene, she has her sights set on Sydney in 2000.

Eric Jackson
Perhaps best known for his exploits on the current rodeo scene–winning a gold medal at the 1993 World Championships in Tennessee, breaking his ribs in the '95 finals in Munich and placing second in '97 in Ontario–Washington, D.C.'s (when he's not traveling in his motorhome) Eric Jackson, also an accomplished C-1 paddler, is one of the most versatile kayakers on the planet. A member of the U.S. slalom team since 1989, he was the top-placing U.S. kayaker in the 1992 Olympics in Spain, taking 13th, and he won the U.S. slalom national championships in 1995. "Slalom and rodeo are similar in that they both take a lot of focus and commitment," he says.

Joe Jacobi and Scott Strausbaugh
In a move that would have qualified him for the national limbo team, Joe Jacobi leaned back just far enough at gate 24 of the 1992 Olympic slalom course in Barcelona to avoid a five-second penalty and secure him and C-2 partner Scott Strausbaugh the United States' first and only Olympic gold medal in whitewater. Jacobi, who runs a Bed and Breakfast in Copperhill, Tenn., still competes, now in C-1. With medal in hand, Strausbaugh has retired from competition, content to give motivational speeches through-out the country.

Jon Lugbill
Jon Lugbill is generally recognized as the best paddler to ever compete in whitewater canoeing. He's a five-time World Champion in C-1, a one-time silver medal winner, a seven-time member of a gold medal winning team and is the only athlete in history to have won 12 golds in the Whitewater World Championships. "He was the group leader," says his former coach, Bill Endicott. "He was surprisingly selfless and was always thinking about the team. Yet he always wanted to be the best." Lugbill is also the only paddler ever to have his picture on a Wheaties Box. It hangs on the wall in his office of Richmond Sports Backers in Richmond, Va.

Jamie McEwan
When the International Olympic Committee debuted whitewater slalom in the 1972 Munich Games for the first time in history, no one gave the U.S. much hope. All that changed when a 19-year-old named Jamie McEwan stormed to win the bronze in C-1, legitimizing the sport for a long line of followers. "That was a milestone for U.S. paddling," says Bill Endicott, former coach of the U.S. team. "Americans didn't believe in themselves until that moment." McEwan accomplished just as remarkable a feat when, coming out of retirement 20 years later, he placed fourth in C-2 with Lecky Haller at the 1992 Olympics in Spain.

Scott Shipley
If it weren't for tough twists of fate, Scott Shipley, 28, could well have six World Cup K-1 titles under his sprayskirt. As it is, he'll have to settle for three, in 1993, '95 and '97, with seconds in '98 and '99 and a third-place finish in '94. Even without his victories, however, he is by far the most successful slalom kayaker in U.S. history, if not the world. Apart from coaches and fellow competitors, the first people to recognize this are the town folk from his home in Poulsbo, Wash., where a sign leading into town reads, "Welcome to Poulsbo...Home of Scott Shipley, 1993–1995–1997 World Cup Kayak Champion."

Rich Weiss
Although he might not have gained the notoriety of fellow U.S. teammate Scott Shipley, to this date two-time Olympian Rich Weiss enjoys the country's highest Olympic placing with a sixth-place showing in the '96 Games on the Ocoee. He also became the first American to medal in men's kayak at the World Championships in 1993. A long-time member of the U.S. kayak team, Weiss came to a tragic end in 1997 when he died kayaking Washington State's Upper White Salmon River.

–Compiled by Eugene Buchanan, Tom Bie, Richard Bangs, Aaron Bible, Jodie Deignan, Brad Dimock, David Gonzalez, Peter Kennedy, Ron Watters, Charlie Wilson and Roy Webb

Paddler Magazine

Paddlers of the Century