Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

A reminder of past Olympians

SALISBURY, Conn. —While many might know Dugway Road as home to the recently reopened Amesville bridge, far fewer are aware that it was once a training hub for Olympic athletes. 

A few hundred yards down the river from the new bridge, a series of gates hang over the river. This is where the U.S. national team for whitewater slalom would live and train for many months out of the year. 

On a recent sunny morning, whitewater racer Devin McEwan stood on the bank, gazing out at the course. “Today, training has mostly moved to [Washington] D.C. and Charlotte [N.C.], but for a while, this was a nexus of training in the U.S.” 

“I grew up surrounded by the white water slalom national team,” he explained. 

A native of Lakeville, McEwan was introduced to the sport at a young age by his father, Jamie McEwan. An Olympic bronze medalist in 1972 and competitor in 1992, Jamie McEwan often took his children “along for the ride” in doubles canoes on the Housatonic. For Devin, the sport stuck.

“I got my own kayak when I was 10 and started competing in my teens.” 

By 2001, Devin McEwan was competing on the U.S. national team alongside his father. 

The gates (which look like posts strung on wires that stretch across the river) just past the power plant make up a training course for whitewater slalom racing. The paddler must pass through all of the hanging gates (there are usually about 20 of them) in the indicated direction (usually five or six will have red markings, which mean the paddler must pass through them going upstream). 

The course in Falls Village is roughly the length of a competition course — about 300 meters. For many years, members of the national team, including the McEwans, used this course to train. They also shared a house across the street. 

“To me [the house] has a romance to it,” McEwan said. “There is a culture around the sport. When everyone is together, and they spend as much time as possible outside — that I love.” 

Although now most of the canoeing and kayaking on the Housatonic is fairly casual, McEwan continues to train here when he is around. He explained that the river is best in the spring and fall, when the water level is higher. 

“There used to be a daily release from the power plant that made the river better for training, but that stopped a while ago.” 

Today, whitewater slalom training has moved farther south: An artificial course was just opened in Charlotte. It is there that McEwan will spend some of his summer, training as part of the Olympic team for this year’s summer games. 

To qualify for the Olympics, McEwan and his partner had to win two sets of trial competitions this spring in Charlotte and Oklahoma City. 

Prior to his Olympic training, though, McEwan will travel to Spain and France to compete in a series of World Cup competitions. These usually take place on past Olympic courses; the course McEwan will run on in Spain is the one his father competed on during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. 

After returning from Europe to train in Charlotte, McEwan will finally head to Rio in July, where he will spend more than a week training before the Games begin in August. 

While McEwan will continue to travel and train elsewhere, and the river will be left to more casual paddlers, the gates by the power station continue to hang, just where he left them.

Latest News

Sharon voters split opioid settlement funds between ambulance, regional programs

Sharon voters approved splitting $24,000 in opioid settlement funds at an Aug. 27 town meeting.

Alec Linden

SHARON — Sharon voters unanimously approved splitting $24,000 in opioid settlement funds between the town’s ambulance service and a regional fund supporting addiction prevention, harm reduction and mental health services.

The decision Thursday, Aug. 27, came two months after voters rejected an earlier Board of Finance-backed proposal, 27-11, at a June 18 town meeting. Residents had expressed concern about directing all the money, which must be used for opioid remediation, to a regional organization rather than supporting the town’s emergency medical service.

Keep ReadingShow less
At Peggy Mercury, prep meets punk in ‘Imaginary Concerts’
Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
Provided

Last month, James Boehmer and Greg Fricke of Peggy Mercury launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” wearable art sold exclusively at their store in the Kent Barns section of Kent, Connecticut.

The two fashion industry veterans opened Peggy Mercury more than two years ago, and a quick visit will tell you that people are finding what they’re looking for at the beauty and lifestyle store. But what they’re looking for is never standard.

Keep ReadingShow less

“Girlbomb” at 20

“Girlbomb” at 20
Photo by Jessica YurkoMillerton author Janice Erlbaum will celebrate the 20th anniversary of her memoir “Girlbomb” at Black Rabbit Dispensary on Sept. 5.
Photo by Jessica YurkoMillerton author Janice Erlbaum will celebrate the 20th anniversary of her memoir “Girlbomb” at Black Rabbit Dispensary on Sept. 5.
With memoir...the character only knows what the character knows.
Janice Erlbaum

In “Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir,” published in 2006, author Janice Erlbaum wrote about the years after she left her family’s Brooklyn apartment at 15, moving through shelters, group homes, squats, clubs and the streets of 1980s New York while somehow continuing to attend high school. The book has sold more than 75,000 copies, stayed in print for two decades and continues to find new readers.

Now Erlbaum, 57, lives in Millerton and on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 7:30 p.m., she will celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Girlbomb” with a reading at Black Rabbit Dispensary. The event is open to the public and will be livestreamed on Instagram.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Spencertown’s 21st Festival Of Books
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, author of “Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made” is one of thefeatured authors at the Spencertown Academy Festival of Books on Saturday, Sept. 5.
Mirissa Neff

On Saturday, Sept. 5, the Spencertown Academy Arts Center in Spencertown, New York, will host its 21st annual Book Festival.

With over 20,000 gently used books, CDs, DVDs and vinyl donated by the community, it took volunteers 45 days — and an estimated 750 hours —to set the whole thing up. Most of that time was spent sorting through the vast troves of donations and organizing them by category.

Keep ReadingShow less
Paul Newman racing doc to screen in North Canaan on Sunday
“Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman,”will be screened Sunday, Sept. 6, at the Colonial Theatre in North Canaan.
Provided

On Sunday, Sept. 6, Lime Rock Park will host a screening of the documentary “Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman” at the Colonial Theatre in North Canaan at 7 p.m.

Newman was one of the most celebrated actors of the 20th century, known for films including “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Hud” and “Cool Hand Luke.” His 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” also began a decades-long friendship with co-star Robert Redford.

Keep ReadingShow less
Community to take center stage at Dive Barn

A scene from last year’s Dance Barn.

Steven Tayler

On Sunday, Sept. 6, PS21 in Chatham, New York, will host a celebration of community through dance at its second annual Dive Barn performance at the organization’s Dance Barn.

Dive Barn is the brainchild of dancer, teacher and choreographer Sayer Mansfield, who has dedicated her life to contemporary and experimental dance. She studied in the Department of Dance at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. She’s performed with companies including Pilobolus, Compagnie Marie Chouinardand Mark Morris Dance Group. Her work has been featured in films including “Little Women,” “Maestro” and “Sproutland.” She has served on the faculties of Jacob’s Pillow, Phillips Academy Andover, as well as Harvard and Yale Universities.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.