Jessica MONROE

Jessica Monroe was already in her 20s when she took up rowing but, after only a year of training, she made the Canadian national team in 1989. Two years later she won the coxless fours (with Kirsten Barnes, Brenda Taylor, and Jennifer Doey) and the eights (alongside Barnes, Megan Delehanty, Doey, Kathleen Heddle, Marnie McBean, Taylor, Lesley Thompson-Willie, and the non-Olympian Kelly Mahon) at the 1991 World Championships, setting world records in both. She repeated these victories, and set tournament records, at the 1992 Summer Olympics, with Kay Worthington rowing in place of Doey in both events (Doey dropped out prior to the event due to a back injury) and Shannon Crawford replacing Mahon in the eights. Monroe’s next major international tournament was the 1995 World Championships, where she, Mahon, Thompson-Willie, Theresa Luke, Maria Maunder, Emma Robinson, Tosha Tsang, Anna Van der Kamp and the non-Olympian Julie Jespersen-Platt finished sixth in the eights. Exchanging Jespersen-Platt and Mahon for Heather McDermid and Alison Korn, the squad performed much better at the 1996 Summer Olympics, finishing second behind the Romanians. Competiting under her married name Gonin, she won her final medal, silver in the eights, alongside Korn, Robinson, Thompson-Willie, Buffy Alexander-Williams , Laryssa Biesenthal, Dorota Urbaniak, Kristen Wall, and the non-Olympian Kubet Weston. She is a member of the British Columbia (1994) and Greater Victoria (2009) Sports Halls of Fame.