SO many generous people have helped West Vancouver's Nikola Girke sail her way into her third Olympic Games that when she hits the waves of Weymouth, England with windsurfing gold on the line, she wants to use her board as a platform to give something back.
Girke is leading the charge for a small group of Canadian 2012 Olympians who have signed on with an online foundation that allows fans and supporters to donate money to charity on behalf of a competing athlete. Money can be given as a straight up donation or as a pledge tied to an athlete's performance. Funds raised by Girke's supporters will go to a number of charities, several of which are sport-related such as the Canadian Athletes Now Fund, KidSport, and the Canadian Sailing Association.
"For so many years I've always had my hand out asking for money and it's nice to give back to the community when you can," Girke told the North Shore News in a phone conversation last week as she waited at Vancouver International Airport for her flight to England. "Sport has done so much for me in my life. I was always active as a kid. It shapes who you are, it helped me become an elite athlete. I think sports gives everybody the opportunity to learn so many different things."
The fundraising campaign is set up through Chimp, an online account that makes it easy to donate. Girke has set up her own group on the service called Nikola Girke - Going 4 Gold. Other Olympic athletes have followed her lead and set up their own groups. People that have already joined Girke's group have pledged to donate money if she achieves goals such as winning one of her Olympic stages, finishing top-10 in all of her races or, of course, winning gold.
"We're trying to make it kind of fun and exciting to donate," she said. "We can have a little fun with it. . . . (Donors say) 'I'll give you $250 if you win a gold medal.' So if I do, then I have to go through that list and say, 'OK, you owe me, you owe me, you owe me. It just makes it more fun."
All of the money donated to Girke's group is then doled out to her charities. On top of that, the Elysium Foundation, a Californiabased non-profit organization, has pledged to match all of the donations to Girke's group dollar-for dollar up to a maximum of $10,000.
Donations don't have to be based solely on Girke's performance on the waves either - she's already received $250 for getting her picture taken with Prince Charles, himself an old windsurfer who stopped by one of Girke's training sessions in Weymouth.
"I would have gotten $500 had I had him in a wetsuit," said Girke with a laugh, adding that the Prince was a "good guy."
"Apparently I winked at him. I've never winked before - I don't know what that means," she said. "He was great. It was really great of him to give so much of his time. He spent time with each one of us that he met and was really nice, witty, interesting. He was a windsurfer so he knew about the sport, he'd done it, he knew the waters - he'd windsurfed there."
Girke herself has logged a lot of time in the waters of Weymouth in the last three months, getting to know the waves and the winds that she will need to harness if she hopes to sail onto the podium. Girke finished 17th in windsurfing at the 2008 Beijing Games - at the 2004 Olympics she raced with a partner in a 470 sailboat, finishing 13th - and she's counting on her time spent in England to help her reach new heights.
"Sailing is such a venuespecific kind of sport and it was just great to collect more experience at the venue and see all the types of conditions that there can be," she said. "I'm definitely going there for a medal, I feel I'm ready for it."
Whether it rains or shines in Weymouth there will be a cloud hanging over the windsurfing competition - earlier this year the International Sailing Federation voted to replace windsurfing with kiteboarding for the 2016 Olympic Games. A re-vote is tentatively scheduled for the fall but Girke said the decision is unlikely to be overturned.
"There was a huge uproar once the decision was made public," she said. "It wasn't even on the Radar screen that windsurfing was going to get dropped. The voting process was all a little bit dodgy."
The shock of the decision, however, has worn off and Girke said she'll try not to let it affect her performance.
"I was going for a podium regardless of the decision, and I've tried not to let myself get wrapped up in, 'Oh my goodness, this is going to be the last chance,'" she said. "That's just going to make me stressed. I'm going to London with the thought that I am completely ready for this. I've worked so hard for London, and whatever happens after London we'll deal with after London."
To check out Girke's Chimp group visit chimpfund.com/ groups/nikolagirkegoing4gold.
