Theresa LUKE

As a student at Simon Fraser University in the early 1990s, Theresa Luke’s athletic talents were discovered by Richard McClure,a former Canadian Olympic medalist in rowing. Within three years she was a member of the Canadian national team and attended her first World Championships in 1994, where she finished seventh in the eights alongside Kathleen Heddle, Maria Maunder, Emma Robinson, Anna Van der Kamp, Lesley Thompson-Willie, and the non-Olympians Julie Jespersen-Platt, Kelly Mahon, and Rachel Starr. The same squad, with the non-Olympian Jennifer Browett in place of Heddle, had won a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Regatta. Heddle and Starr were replaced by Jessica Monroe and Tosha Tsang for the 1995 edition, but finished sixth. With the loss of Jespersen-Platt and Mahon, and the addition of Heather McDermid and Alison Korn, the squad found success at the 1996 Summer Olympics, winning silver behind the Romanian team. Luke traded the eights for the quadruple sculls at the 1997 World Championships, finishing sixth alongside Browett, Maunder, and Diane O’Grady, and rowed the double sculls in 1998, finishing eleventh with Maunder. She returned to the eights in 1999, winning bronze alongside Korn, McDermid, Robinson, Thompson-Willie Buffy Alexander-Williams, Laryssa Biesenthal, Dorota Urbaniak, and the non-Olympian Kubet Weston, but finally reached the top of the podium with Robinson in the coxless pairs. The duo would finish fourth in the event at the 2000 Summer Olympics, but took bronze in the eights with their 1999 World Championship team (with Heather Davis substituting for Weston). Luke retired after these Games and took up coaching.