Jeff Lay became a world class rower and Olympic medal winner more by accident than design.

Back in his high school days, basketball occupied the highest place in Jeff’s sporting interests and making the Streetsville Tiger team at the zenith of his ambitions. In this, he succeeded making both Streetsville’s junior and senior hoops teams.

     He took up rowing strictly as a lark in Grade 13. “I remember they were looking for guys for a rowing team for a school competition,” he recalls. “So I volunteered.” It’s fortunate that he did, not only for Jeff Lay the athlete, but in the long run also for Canadian rowing. The makeshift Streetsville team finished first in their race and skills had less to do with it than sheer determination. He added skills later to an already evident determination and the rest is sports history. It didn’t take Jeff long to start making waves. He soon made enough to qualify for Canada’s national roster and international competitions. Jeff first tasted success came in 1993 when he won the 1993 U.S. national championships in Indianapolis with the Canadian lightweight eight team. Later in the same year, the Canuck team proved their speed in Indianapolis was no fluke – they returned home Roudnice in Czechoslovakia lightweight eight champions of the world. There was even greater glory in store for Lay and it came at the zenith of his competitive career.

     In the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Lay got to enjoy the proudest moment of his life, claiming reward for years of hard work and hundreds of hours of training. He won a silver medal with the Canadian lightweight four — not shabby for a one-time basketball hopeful who never even rated athlete of the year honours while in high school. Sandwiched in between the world championship gold and the Olympic silver, there were a pair of Pan American Games silver medals (men’s lightweight pairs and men’s lightweight four) both in 1995 Mar del Plata, Argentina.

     As a member of Canada’s rowing team from 1993 to ’99, Lay accumulated an impressive list of accomplishments in world championships, including bronze medal in the 1997 in Aiguelette, France (lightweight eight) and a pair of fourth place finishes in lightweight four (1994, Indianapolis and 1995 in Tampere, Finland). In his farewell world championship race in St. Catharines, his lightweight eight boat came fourth.

     On the World Cup circuit, his best finish was runner-up (lightweight eight) in Lucerne, Switzerland in ’99 with a pair of seventh places in ’97 in Munich, Germany and ’98 in Lucerne (both lightweight fours). He also has four U.S. championship gold medals in his trophy case to go with other reminders from various international regattas. His accomplishments were recognized by his hometown when he was elected to the Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame for 2002.