Sprint kayaker Brian Malfesi, is a former Olympian with his sights set on the next Summer Games in Paris, is fiercely proud of his roots, and is an easy choice as a Hometown Hero.
Malfesi raced in K-2 (doubles kayak) with Vincent Jourdenais at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and while that’s a huge accomplishment in his journey as an athlete, it's not the end. The 28-year-old won the 2022 national team trails in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in May of 2022, in the single Kayak 1,000m event, and that qualified him to complete in World Cup events in the Czech Republic and Poland. His goal is to keep working toward the next Olympics. "I want to continue until Paris in 2024," he said. "That's the ultimate goal."
At 28, he's right in his prime for a paddler, and still will be during the games. The sport has recently seen Olympic Champions as old at 36 and as young as 22, he said.
Malfesi was born and raised in Maple Ridge, and his family home was just a short walk to Whonnock Lake. His brother Michael got into paddling sports, and he followed in his wake. They both attended Whonnock Elementary and Garibaldi Senior Secondary. Brian loved the sport for its social dynamic—where all the team members are rooting for each other. "It's a really close community—like a family almost," he said.
And he took off. In 2009, at the age of 15, he qualified for the Canada Games Team in the under-19 age category. He made his international debut at the 2010 Pan American Championships, wining a pair of bronze medals from the junior K-2 and K-4 1000m races.
He wore the Maple Leaf gain the following year, at the ICF World Junior Championships, making the D final in both the K-4 1000m AND k-2 200m.
Then on to the U23 World Championships. In 2015 he made the senior national team and his best result of the year came in the K-2 100m with Andrew Jessop as they finished fifth at the final event of the year in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2018 he won K-1 1000m silver back in senior competition in 2018, winning K-1 1000m silver at the Pan Am Championships. In 2019 he returned to the World Cup circuit where he would qualified for Canada at Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 games were postponed to July/August 2021 and he and his partner Vincent Jourdenais were B finalists in the K-2 1000m.
What makes a good paddler he says is "not just the ability to work really hard, but also focus on the technical things." As a westerner, he's a rare bird in the sport of canoe and kayak racing, as most national team members are from Eastern Canada. "Paddling is dominated by the eastern provinces. I'm pretty proud of being from here, and helping to grow the sport in the West," he said. "BC is my home, and Maple Ridge will always been my home."
He's the pride of the Ridge Canoe and Kayak club, which is sending more paddlers on to national and even international competition. "We're a small club, but we produce a lot of good athletes," said Malfesi. And he still loves Whonnock Lake, where he grew up and has still been training there twice daily as recently as this fall.
"It's amazing—it’s honestly one of the best places I paddle."