Shubenacadie Olympian: Tracy Cameron

As a schoolteacher it is sometimes possible to predict the path a student’s life may take. At other times, a student may become far more than ever imagined by the teacher or even the student themselves. Tracy Cameron of shubenacadie was one of those people. 

Cameron graduated from Hants East Rural High where she had won female athlete of the year for all three years of senior high. She was a star basketball player, earning her recruitment to the basketball team at Acadia University. At Acadia she studied Physical Education and later graduated with a bachelor’s degree with honors in Exercise Studies. Driven to succeed academically as well as physically, she travelled west where she attended University of Calgary (U of C) where she obtained a master’s degree in Sport Medicine. While at the U of C she decided to try another sport and learned how to row. To quote the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame, “Taking up a brand new sport at age 25 might not be unusual, but winning a World Championship gold medal in it five years later could be termed exceptional.”

As a result of her new-found sports talent, Tracy Cameron got to see the world and bring home World Championship medals in rowing. Her first Gold Medal came in the World Championships in Gifu, Japan in 2005. She won two more gold medals (different categories) the following year at the World Cups in Munich, Germany and Lucerne, Switzerland. In the following two years she would win two bronzes, a silver and another gold medal at World Cup events in Austria, Switzerland and Poland. She then qualified for the Beijing Olympics in China in 2008 where she and partner Melanie Kok won Bronze. Cameron completed her rowing career with another gold medal at the World Rowing Championships in Lake Karapiro, New Zealand in 2010 and competed again in Slovenia in 2011. Even though she qualified for the London Olympics in 2012, Tracy Cameron was satisfied with her career and retired from competitive rowing. Her academic and sporting accomplishments remain an inspiration for the youth of East Hants, and all of Canada.

By: Peter L.M. Ashley