Van Koeverden forgets past to focus on future

By Steve Keating

(Reuters) - With the London Olympics beckoning, Adam Van Koeverden is all business. The Canadian kayaker takes his sport seriously and already has his game face on.

With an Olympic resume that already includes a complete set of medals, gold (K-1 500 meter) and bronze (K-1 1,000m) from the 2004 Athens Summer Games and a silver (K-1 1,000) in Beijing, Van Koeverden heads to London with just one chance but plenty of expectations to add to his collection.

For the past two Summer Games, the muscular kayaker, who looks as if he was chiseled out of granite, has been the face of his country's Olympic effort, proudly leading the team into a sweltering Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing after carrying the Maple Leaf at the closing ceremonies in Athens four years earlier.

He has also borne the expectations of a nation, a sometimes-heavy burden that has not always rested easily on his massive shoulders.

CANADA'S BEST BET

Pegged as Canada's best bet for gold in Beijing, Van Koeverden failed to win a medal in the K-1 1,000 finishing a well-beaten eighth.

Humbled by his defeat, he later apologized to the entire country but has now consigned the experience to history.

"That's redundant. I had my ups and downs in Beijing but I also won a silver medal (K-1 500) which is something people like to forget when they talk about my disappointing results in Beijing," he told Reuters.