Adam Kreek, Gold Medalist

Adam Kreek, a member of Canada’s eight-man rowing gold-medalists in Beijing, was born in London, Ontario to an Estonian father and Canadian mother.

Adam’s singing of O Canada at the gold medal ceremony was cited “as an inspiration” by Simon Whitfield, another outstanding Olympian. He actually wrote ‘sing like Adam Kreek’ on the handlebars of his bicycle as he sprinted for a silver medal.

His grandfather, Aleksander Kreek, was European and World University Games shotput champion in the 1930s. Adam visited the family’s abandoned farm in Estonia in 2003 but his efforts to find the medals his grandfather had buried there before escaping to Sweden proved unsuccessful.

Kreek will visit Estonia again in 2009, equipped with a metal detector and a film crew to record the story and to broadcast it on television.

At a recent fundraising event for Olympians in Edmonton, Kreek spoke to an audience of 700 about his commitment to the sport. He worked on Alberta’s oilrigs from the fall of 1999 to the fall of 2000, and again during the winter of 2000-2001. Dave Kiil