Black History Month Feature – Celebrating Excellence

The theme for Black History Month 2024 in Canada is “Black Excellence: A Heritage to Celebrate; A Future to Build”. At Rowing BC, we are celebrating the excellence achieved by Vancouver rower Kieanna Stephens.

Kieanna started her rowing career at Burnaby Lake Roiwng Club in 2016, after playing softball and ice hockey. She took to rowing immediately and quickly moved to Burnaby’s Youth/U23 Competitive Program.

In 2017 Kieanna qualified to represent Canada at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Trakai, Lithuania. Together with Grace Vandenbroek (Ontario), she went on to win the bronze medal in the Women’s Double.

In 2019 Kienna and Grace teamed up with Anna Burnotte and Marilou Duvernay-Tardif (both from Quebec) to form the Women’s Quad that would represent Canada at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Sarasota, Florida. The crew finished with a strong B-Final win, coming 7th overall.

Kieanna went on to row with the University of Washington and now lives in Seattle. Her success remains an inspiration to BIPoC (Black, Indigineous, People of Colour) rowers across BC.