SA canoeing legend, Olympic medallist Bridgitte Hartley retires
Canoeing South Africa has lavished thanks and praise on London Olympic Games medallist Bridgitte Hartley after she announced her retirement from sprint canoeing this week.
Hartley made headlines in 2012 when she won South Africa’s first – and still only – medal in sprint canoeing, and also became the first African athlete to podium in that Olympic discipline.
“What more can we say about our sprint queen Bridgitte Hartley?” said Canoeing South Africa president Kim Pople.
“She has done it all. Olympic medal. World Champs medals. World Cup medals. She has got them all.
“She has done so much for Canoeing South Africa during the many, many years she has been on the canoeing map. We are truly grateful for every time she pulled on the green and gold on the sprint course.
“We wish her well in the next chapter,” added Pople.
For Hartley, bringing down the curtain on her illustrious sprint canoeing career was a difficult and emotional choice, but the decision has been eased by the many new opportunities that her career path has opened up for her.
She has thrived in her new role as a coach and is taking a group of eager Maritzburg College paddlers to new heights, while at the same time immersing herself in her new role as the chair of the International Canoe Federation’s Athlete Commission.
She has also made it clear that she has new paddling and sporting goals and her admirers will see her in action with Pippa McGregor at the Prescient Freedom Paddle surfski race in Cape Town next month, a week after she runs the Two Oceans half marathon.
After starting to paddle in her matric year in Pretoria in 2001, her stellar career has earned her two 1000m and one 500m bronze medals at sprint world championships; eleven medals at sprint World Cups,