Athlete Zone highlights 'giving back'

Canadian Olympic rower, Jane Thornton has been involved in the creation of the “Athletes Giving Back” section highlighting rowing athletes who have been able to give back to their communities during and after their sporting careers. Thornton herself recently received the 2015 AthletesCAN Social Responsibility Award.

As described on www.athletescan.com, athlete social responsibility is the ethical or ideological theory that as role models, athlete leaders have a responsibility to society. The Athlete Social Responsibility award celebrates the importance of athletes giving back and honours the impact athletes have achieved through their volunteer work as role models in their communities.

“Jane has shown tremendous dedication to promoting the benefits of an active lifestyle throughout her athletic career and continues to do so,” stated AthletesCAN Board Member Caroline Calvé on their website. “As a medical doctor and Olympian, she is creatively combining her knowledge and experience to develop original initiatives that benefit not only the community but also the Canadian and international sport landscapes. Jane is a perfect example of an athlete leader who has given so much to improve the lives and experiences of others around the world through sport.”

Thornton was a member of Canada’s national rowing team for ten years, from 2001 to 2011. She notably became a World Champion in the women’s pair with Darcy Marquardt in 2006 and stroked the women’s eight at the 2008 Olympic Games. During her time on the national team and since her retirement, Thornton has been active in promoting sport, health and physical activity. As a physician, Thornton has lent her medical expertise to high-profile sporting organisations including being a member of the Canadian Olympic Medical Team for the Athens and Sochi Olympics, and a member of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games Athletes Advisory Council – Medical. She is also an athlete ambassador at Right to Play Canada.

“This award recognises what we athletes can so easily take for granted, that sport has the power to transform lives and shape society for the better,” said Thornton on www.athletescan.com. “Receiving this honour is truly humbling because of the so many heroes of social responsibility making a difference throughout Canada and the world.”

The Athlete Zone is designed to provide rowing athletes with information that they will find useful. There is documentation about the IOC athlete career programme, anti-doping and health. If you are a rower who is giving back or know of one, we’d love to hear from you: media@fisa.org 

Currently athletes are being asked to help manage their own World Rowing profiles by getting a login to access the database. If you have participated in any World Rowing event and do not have an account on World Rowing, then provide your details to World Rowing through this page https://rowingtwo.sportresult.com/Account/ForgotUsername. World Rowing will then create an account in the database and you will be able to update your profile.