Select a region
The winner of the 2023 Thomas Keller Medal is an American Olympic gold medalist, with close family links to Guernsey and a hunger for regular visits back to her grandmother's home-island.
When Caryn Davies travelled to Lucerne to receive her award last month, she combined her time away from home with a trip to Guernsey with other family members, before they and relatives here and from elsewhere gathered in Alderney - where they discovered a fifth cousin, through the Parmentier branch of the extended family.
Her island ties are through her father's parents and grandparents, with some relatives spread across the world while others live very near to where the family home was in Doyle Road, St Peter Port.
Although Caryn grew up in the States, she has made frequent visits to Guernsey throughout her life.
Pictured: Caryn Davies (left) at around 18-years-old rowing in Guernsey.
She had started rowing as a child and by 14 she was competing. As she progressed, the sport took her to three Olympics, multiple World Championships at both junior and senior levels, and numerous other rowing competitions in the USA and across the world. She also rowed for Pembroke College Oxford when studying there.
"When I think back to why I got involved in the first place, I still love it and even at the highest level, I just wanted a place to belong. And that's what I continue to get out of it," she said.
The Keller Award - named after Thomas Keller; the late President of World Rowing, and recognised as 'the highest distinction in rowing' - is an annual decoration bestowed on individuals who have had 'an exceptional international rowing career as well as (showing) exemplary sportsmanship and a legendary aspect'.
Caryn received her award from Dominik Keller; son of Thomas Keller, and Chairman of the Thomas Keller Medal committee.
"It's an award given to one person every year by World Rowing, which is the governing body for international rowing, and there's a number of criteria," she explained.
"Three of them have to do with your competitive rowing career, and then the last two, which I think for me are the most important, have to do with giving back to the community and how you are viewed by your peers. They say you have to have a 'legendary status'," she said.
The way Caryn has given back to the rowing community, and continues to do so, is apparent as is her ongoing love of the sport.
"I am the current president of the US Olympians and Paralympians Association, which is basically an alumni group, and I am still active as a rower. I'm a member of five boat clubs, two in Boston, one in Ithaca (where Caryn lives), one in Henley-on-Thames, and one that is a virtual club, so yes I've remained active. These clubs are not rowing at an elite level, they're for local masters athletes, so yes I'm very active in the community."
Her commitment to the sport means Caryn has often rowed socially as well as competitively, including on a past trip to Guernsey where she joined local icon of the sport, Brian Staples and others for a row and a run.
"That photo (above) was taken in 2000, so that was almost 25 years ago," Caryn remembered.
She would have been 18 at the time, on one of many family visits to the island. Her most recent visit in May included her husband and son, and her parents.
On this visit, and her past trips, Caryn has spent time visiting properties formerly owned and occupied by her grandparents, and other recent relatives and ancestors.
As well as the former family home on Doyle Road, there is a former farmhouse off Braye Road in the Vale which features strongly in her family's background.
"My dad and I were (in Guernsey) just over a year ago, visiting cousin Alison. We, including Alison's husband Carl, went down to (the farmhouse) and my dad, being very social, just knocked on the door and said 'may we come in? Our ancestor used to live here', and the woman was very kind and she invited us in.
"She gave us tea and she gave us a photo of our ancestors that she had inherited when she purchased the house. She gave us a tour of the garden.
"It was quite an experience, and it was wonderful experiencing the hospitality of the people there."
This is not the only example of Guernsey-hospitality that Caryn has experienced on her many visits to the island.
"It was the same with the woman who bought the house that my grandmother used to live in (on Doyle Road). We sold it a few years after she died, and I don't know if this woman is the first owner since then, because that was about 10 years ago, but the woman living there now is a solicitor and I'm a lawyer so we have that in common. We've knocked on the door, and my father said 'my mother used to live here, may we come in?' and she invited us in and showed us around, and we got to see some of the improvements that they've made on the house.
"It was really nice."
Pictured: Caryn Davies in around 2000 with Brian Staples (back right) and other members of the Guernsey Rowing Club.
Caryn said her father in particular had strong memories of time spent in the house and was pleased to be able to return.
"I don't know how long the house was in the family, but his mother lived there after he had grown up and moved away. I remember that house so (my grandmother) was living there when I was a child, and we would go and visit every couple of years, so I remember very clearly summer vacations in that house."
Caryn's past trips to the island have fortuitously included work commitments too, further strengthening her links to Guernsey.
"Last time I was in Guernsey, I had some business meetings - I no longer work for that same firm but it was a firm based in London, and so it's not just the family connection in Guernsey and Jersey, I also have business there.
"There's two parts to my practice - one is representing start ups and small businesses and the other is doing contracts for asset managers, mostly in private equity."
This high pressured work environment gave way to self employment which has afforded Caryn more time for her other interests - rowing being a priority among them.
"When I was working for a big firm it was all very stressful, but now that I have my own firm and I'm the boss, I get to to set my hours and I make sure to balance the stress of law with other things: family, rowing, whatever, and that's something that I learned as an athlete, is the importance of rest.
"If you want to perform your best, you have to have scheduled downtime."
Caryn told me she still trains and competes when she can, and she is looking forward to doing more rowing later this year.
"Obviously with a baby it's difficult, and it's going to be a while before I do much travelling, but, as an example, a few years ago my husband and I went with some friends to compete in the Vogalonga in Venice which is a regatta of all different types of boats - there are thousands of boats and you race through the canals of Venice.
"I'll be competing in October in Boston, Massachusetts where I live."
Caryn's most recent visit to the island was brief, as it included time spent in Alderney, so she didn't have time to reconnect with the Guernsey Rowing Club, but it's clear how important the sport remains to her.
"The most valuable thing to me is not the part of the award that has to do with competitive achievements because I already have Olympic gold medals but it's more to know that my peers see what I've done for the (rowing) community and recognise that that's really important to me. Because, as I said I'm really just looking for a sense of belonging in my involvement with the sport."
LAURA MEETS...Neäve Chatting Tonks
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.