Lofty goals set Giancarlo DiPompeo up for success
Photo courtesy of Giancarlo DiPompeo.
Fourth-year Vikes rower Giancarlo DiPompeo finally had a chance to reflect on a whirlwind of accomplishments this year, after being named the 2024 Rowing BC Athlete of the Year on Nov. 13.
“I honestly didn’t know that was coming,” said the Vikes co-captain, and mechanical engineering student. “It gave me a chance to think about the year [because] things go by really fast, and the year just keeps going, like, one thing after another.”
Most recently, DiPompeo won three medals for the Vikes at the 2024 Canadian University Rowing Championships on Nov. 3, including a silver in the lightweight men’s single. Just over two weeks earlier, in Welland, Ontario, the 21-year-old captured gold in the under-23 men’s single, and silver in the open men’s single while representing B.C. at the 2024 National Rowing Championships.
These accomplishments, however, were simply a byproduct of a much loftier goal DiPompeo set years earlier: rowing at the 2024 Paris Olympic games.
Years before Paris was on his radar, DiPompeo came to the sport when his father suggested that rowing could improve conditioning for other sports he played, including football and golf. He agreed, and in Grade 9 joined his high school’s rowing team in St. Catharines, Ontario — initially learning the basics on rowing machines.
“[My coaches] pulled a couple of tests, and I guess they were actually pretty good for my first time around…. My coaches started pushing me after that,” recalled DiPompeo.
DiPompeo didn’t begin to take rowing seriously until the summer after his Grade 10 year, when his coach told him he was capable of pursuing the sport at a collegiate level.
At the end of DiPompeo’s Grade 11 year, COVID-19 hit. At the time, DiPompeo was training to be selected for a team his rowing club was sending to race in England.
“Thinking we were going to come right back once it was all blown over in a couple weeks, I had to be ready. So I just kept training hard, and asked my coach for more workouts, and kept going,” said DiPompeo. “Then COVID stretched itself out, but I just kept on it.”
During much of the lockdown, DiPompeo only had access to a singles boat at his rowing club and a rowing machine in his basement.
“That’s when I feel like I took a big leap, because I came out of the other end of [lockdown] and all of my times dropped.”
Although DiPompeo initially explored attending an Ivy League university in the United States, COVID-related travel complications forced him to consider Canadian options instead.
“It was kind of a last-minute decision to come to UVic,” said DiPompeo. “I didn’t want to stay in Ontario … I wanted to experience something new.”
DiPompeo’s first rowing season with the Vikes was nothing short of incredible. At the 2021 Canadian University Rowing Championships, the freshman won gold in both the lightweight 2x and 4x boats — marking the first lightweight 4x gold in the history of UVic’s program, and securing the overall national championship banner title. DiPompeo was named UVic’s male co-rookie of the year.
That year, DiPompeo told his UVic coaches that he wanted to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
“I told my coach in my first year, I want to do this — even though it’s going to be really hard,” said DiPompeo. “There were a lot of things that had to happen early on … because if I wanted to do it, I had to be the best.”
Although DiPompeo knew last year that he would ultimately come up short of his 2024 Olympic goal, the process of training with that higher ambition in mind allowed for what he called his “smaller goals” to fall into place.
DiPompeo kept improving, and eventually won the national lightweight single title at the 2023 Canadian University Rowing Championships.
“That race was a big one for me,” said DiPompeo. There, he competed against rowers who had been selected over him for a spot on Canada’s Pan American team earlier that fall.
“That really fueled my training,” said DiPompeo. “I wanted to prove that they made a mistake.”
DiPompeo kept his momentum rolling in 2024, representing Canada internationally at the FISU World University Rowing Championships in Rotterdam, where he won silver in the lightweight men’s single. Later in the summer, DiPompeo competed in the under-23 World Championships in his hometown of St. Catherines, where he and his high school rowing partner finished fourth — the top-placing Canadian boat in the lightweight men’s double.
After nationals in November, DiPompeo wasn’t satisfied with the Vikes’ fourth overall finish, though he was happy that the team’s lightweight 4x bronze medal took a podium spot away from UBC in that race.
DiPompeo will return to the Vikes for one more year of eligibility, and thinks that UVic men’s rowing can win a national championship again, like they did during his first season with the program.
And of course, DiPompeo has set more goals for himself: “I’m still eligible for the under-23 world championships for one more year… I want to be able to say I’m the under-23 world champion.”
Oh, and he might try to qualify for the 2028 summer Olympics, too.
“Maybe I’ll give it a crack….That’s definitely a dream, for sure.”
