Wed, June 23, 2004
By BRIAN WHITWHAM -- London Free Press

Buffy out to slay competition

Daughter of former Maple Leafs player has decided to compete in Athens after vowing that 2000 in Sydney would be her first, and last, Olympics.

Buffy Williams has spent a large part of her life seeking perfection.

Her pursuit has taken her across the country and around the world, but she hopes to achieve her goal this August with a flawless performance at the Olympic Games in Athens.

"You have an image in your mind of what perfect rowing feels like and you're always striving for it," the 27-year-old said while relaxing in her London home.

Canada's Olympic rowing team will be announced by July 12 and Williams wants to be in women's pairs with Darcy Marquardt of Richmond, B.C.

Olympic athletes spend years training for that one ultimate performance at exactly the right time. As a second-time Olympian, Williams knows this better than most. She was stroke in the women's eight that won bronze at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Her rowing career began when she was in high school in St. Catharines. She'd watched her older sister, Debbie, row for years and had intended on doing the same. But by Grade 9, she was too busy with other sports to bother, despite constant pressure from the rowing coach.

"Every time I passed his room, he'd say 'Hey Buff, when are you going to come row for me?' And it went on all year, to the point where I avoided his whole area of the school," she said.

But she gave in and went out for the team the following year. After only two seasons, she made the junior national team in 1995 and went to the world championships in Poznan, Poland. She placed fourth in the women's four. But for Williams, the real significance was she'd been exposed to international competition.

"That ultimately was what made me realize I wanted to pursue (rowing) at a higher level. It was that whole aura of being at an international regatta, competing against other countries. I mean, I'll never forget being so proud to put the uni-suit on that had the (Canadian) flag on it. Every decision I made after that was oriented toward my goal of representing Canada in the Olympics."

So after high school, she tossed aside scholarship opportunities in the U.S. to head to the University of Victoria, conveniently near a training centre for the national rowing team. Her parents said it was at this point they realized just how determined she was to represent Canada.

Perhaps, some of that drive is natural. Williams is Buffy's name through marriage to Barney Williams, an Olympic-hopeful on the men's team.

Her maiden name is Alexander. Her father Claire was known as The Honest Milkman in the 1970s when he wore the Maple Leaf, playing defence for Toronto in the NHL. He'd quit his job as a milkman to play.

But he takes no credit for his daughter's passion.

"I don't think that can be given to anybody or taught to anybody," he said. "She was just a person that felt she had to complete everything to the best of her ability. We knew when she went (to Victoria), it was for one reason and one reason only and that was to make the national team."

She did that in the spring of 1997 at age 20 and began the summer training schedule on Fanshawe Lake. Many of the other women were five or six years older and Olympic medallists. "That actually turned out to be a really hard summer for me," she said. "I was the youngest in the group by far and there was a lot of pressure."

On her first day, she was in a boat with another woman being watched by Londoner Lesley Thompson-Willie, an Olympic medallist as a coxswain at the time.

"She followed us and she just had this really scrutinizing look and we stopped to turn the boat around and all she said was, 'You're not here to look pretty. You're here to pull hard.' So that was my introduction . . . it was intimidating."

In retrospect, Williams said it's what she needed to hear, but considered giving up many times that summer. "I found I spent way too much time being emotionally disturbed. I just think it's because I was so young that I didn't grasp the intensity."

But it was the familiar rush from international competition that rejuvenated her interest. The team went to Aiguebelette, France, and won silver at the world championships. Williams said it made the summer seem worth it and overall, the experience made her a better athlete.

"As difficult as it was for me to have all that pressure on me, it really did set the tone."

It also didn't come close to the pressure Williams endured three years later in Sydney. After winning six medals in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the Canadians went into Sydney with high expectations. But one by one, each boat was eliminated. Williams rowed in the women's eight on the final day, Canada's last hope for a medal. "I was an emotional basket case for the whole week," she said. "It was intense."

Claire Alexander, who was there to watch, said he'd never seen his daughter under so much pressure.

"I'll never know exactly how she felt. There's only one way to know how (the athletes) feel and that's to be one of them."

He balked at making any comparison between the Olympics and Stanley Cup playoffs. "Every year, there's the Stanley Cup playoffs. This only comes every four years and it's bigger than that."

Williams' boat won the bronze medal, but afterward she said she would never do it again. Now, four years later, she's getting ready to represent Canada in Athens.

Having been there before, she said she's better prepared for the emotional toll of the Olympics.

"Those are the feelings that are associated with success. As awful as they feel, they're a good awful."

Williams' family will be in Athens. To her father, it won't matter whether his daughter is perfect on that one day because she's already accomplished so much. "After it's all over, whether there's a medal or not, you're an Olympian," he said. "How many people can say that?"

reprinted with permission