ATHLETE – ROWING – INDUCTED IN 2019
Cristy Nurse was a member of the Canadian women’s rowing team from 2010 to 2016, winning six world championship medals — four silver and two bronze — and representing Canada at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Nurse was a member of the Guelph Gryphons’ Ontario university championship basketball team. Having always watched the Olympics with her family, Nurse decided to take on a new challenge, making the switch to rowing.
She worked with the former New Zealand national team coach Paul Westbury that summer and he immediately saw her potential. She won the national under-23 pairs championship with Nora Griffiths in 2008 and was named the University of Ottawa’s rowing athlete of the year.
Five years after taking up the sport, Nurse was named to her first national team in 2010. After winning back-to-back silver medals with the Canadian women’s eights at the 2010 and 2011 world championships, Nurse was poised to make her Olympic debut in 2012. However, herniated discs in her back shortly before the London Olympics prevented her from competing.
Nurse rehabbed the injury and returned to competition in 2013, winning two medals at the world championships, a silver in the women’s fours and a bronze in the eights. That was the start of three straight worlds medals for Nurse and the women’s eights, which won silver in 2014 and bronze in 2015.
In 2016, Nurse’s Olympic dream came true as she was named to the Canadian women’s eight crew. After finishing third in its heat, Canada won the repechage to qualify for the final. Canada started strong in the final, leading at the halfway mark and were still second with 500m remaining, but slipped to fifth at the finish line.
Nurse also won nine World Cup medals during her career, three gold, five silver and a bronze.