Reprinted from The Christian Science Monitor Note: Steve Friedman edited this story, which contributed greatly to its national publication and ABC Sports picking it up when we were classmates at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Now, decades later, I feel guilty posting it with my byline alone as Steve’s contribution was so significant. Respectfully, I share the byline with Steve Friedman, who went on to win numerous national sports writing awards. Above: Jean in slalom race in Skopje, former Yugoslavia, photo by Milo Dufek. Below: Jean on the Mascoma River, New Hampshire, photo by Sandy Campbell.
Jean Campbell was four-and-a-half months pregnant when she hit a gate at the 1978 National Kayaking Championships and got bounced to fifth place. A year later, a child richer, and several races wiser, the 28-year-old mother (who had won the 1977 national race by 33 seconds) is wondering if she is ready to capture the world title this July in Quebec.
The notion meets with some skepticism from other kayakers, whose rigorous training schedules are not interrupted by feeding times and changing diapers.
“I have an amazing amount of respect for her tenacity,” John Burton, former coach of the US team, said. “But Jean has never had her attentions divided before.”
Jean seems to balance family life with her racing career easily, however, while taking full responsibility for both.
“I tend to be a much better mother when I have something to do of my own, like racing,” she said.
Her husband, former Olympic kayaker Sandy Campbell, is supportive of Jean’s racing, and can empathize with the trials of being a competitive kayaker, having been one himself for 10 years. Even after a bad race, Jean emerges from her long-distance phone conferences smiling and peaceful, ready to work harder the next day. Sandy is her No. 1 coach.
Admittedly, Campbell has a lot going for her. Her son seems to thrive on the caravan life of following the kayak racing circuit and feels at home wherever his playpen is popped down. Like Jean, he is quick to smile.
Besides having a baby whose temperament rarely goes awry, Campbell is fortunate to have a babysitter, Nancy, who is free to travel with her.
“Nancy is my right arm … and my left arm … and both my feet sometimes, too,” Campbell gratefully acknowledges.
Jean has trained relentlessly for nearly eight years to realize her dream of becoming the best woman kayaker in the world. Other whitewater athletes who have given up school or postponed careers make a full-time job of preparing for the World Championships, their goal of winning is the center of life around which all other things revolve. Jean, however, recognizes that winning is not everything.
“It took me a long time to put things into perspective,” Campbell explained one afternoon in her St. Louis home while holding Thomas in one hand and trying to sign a check for the diaper service in the other “For a long time slalom was my touchstone. If I won, I was OK. If I lost, I was a rotten person.”
“Of course you’d lose if all your eggs are in one basket. If you sit in a gate and tell yourself you have to win a race, you’ll lose. You don’t have to win a race; you may win a race.
At 28 Campbell is not exactly the ‘Old Lady of the River,” but certainly she is one of the most mature and experienced racers in competition kayaking. Where a zest for competition drives some, Jean is motivated by dedication to (and sheer love of) paddling. Which is not to say she isn’t aggressive.
“You have to think like a winner. Somewhere inside you’ve got to know you can do it. If I didn’t have a glimmer of home, I wouldn’t be able to maintain the discipline,” Jean said.
Winning in kayak competition is not like winning in other sports. All things are not equal, and conditions are never the same twice. The “inner race” of kayaking gives the winning edge to the athlete who has the necessary strength, stamina, and skill.
“Rivers are not a cinder track. You always have to cope with the river,” Campbell said, echoing the Greek philosopher who once said you never step in the same river twice, and a racer must be as flexible as the river itself.
