Yara Ensminger gets a real thrill from making a rowing shell move.
The Oakville, Ont., athlete has a real knack for it, too, helping her crew of Kendell Massier, Pari Baker and Stephanie Grauer row to an impressive sixth place finish at the World Rowing Junior Championships earlier this year in Rio de Janeiro.
"I really like to race and compete," Ensminger says. "It is a great feeling when you can make the boat move faster. Also, (I enjoy) rowing in crew-boats, when everyone is fired up and wants to race and row as hard as they can."
As the recipient of a Future Athlete Bursary, Ensminger will continue training with the goal of experiencing that feeling again and again in her career.
The Future Athlete Bursary is designed to give financial support to up-and-coming Canadian rowing athletes who remain in Canada while completing their post-secondary studies at a recognized Canadian institution that, ideally, has a rowing program.
Thanks to a generous private donation, Rowing Canada Aviron will provide financial support of $2,400 to Ensminger and three other athletes who have demonstrated and continue to demonstrate the potential of becoming high performance athletes in one of Rowing Canada Aviron's high performance programs (Heavyweight Women and Men, Lightweight and Para-Rowing).
Patrick Keane of St. Andrews and Victoria City Rowing Club, Vlad Timinsky of Burnaby Lake Rowing Club, and Luke Gadsdon of Leander Boat Club also received a Future Athlete Bursary this year.
Ensminger, who started rowing in 2011, is grateful for Rowing Canada Aviron's belief in her abilities now and in the future.
"It is nice to be recognized with the Future Athlete Bursary, as it tells me that Rowing Canada does recognize our training and competition efforts," she says. "I will definitely try and keep up these efforts to progress further and I see the bursary as a supportive milestone on the way."