Chris Jarvis

Christopher Jarvis (born September 10, 1980) is a Canadian rower.

A disease he had lived with since 1994 and had served as an extra challenge mentally, physically and financially throughout every day of his training career.

Jarvis became an advocate for others with the disease and began building a community in both Canada and the US as a spokesperson, educator and inspiration.

The pair was accused of striking the South African team after crossing over the line of buoys in the final 60m of their 2000m race.

The pair appealed the disqualification to FISA, the governing body, the officials refused to look at any evidence and their appeal was not successful.

After this disappointment, the pair continued to dispute this to the court of Arbitration of Sport, where a video was finally brought forward from the Olympic Committee showing no such evidence of Canada touching the South African pair.

The Canadian Pair also had a signed petition from the other athletes qualified for the Grand Final stating their acceptance to the appeal and asking for Canada to be included in the race.

The only pair of the six who did not sign the petition was strangely not the South African pair, but the Australians who had beaten all other crews but the Canadians in previous races.

Bringing home Silver in 2002 from the under 23 world rowing championships he returned to University to make a difference.

While studying chemical engineering and practicing the maximum number of hours in NCAA legislature, Jarvis found the time to join the universities "Student Athlete Advisory Committee" (SAAC) and over his four-year career spent two years as the university co-chair of SAAC bringing in new initiatives for athletes to engage in the community.

Jarvis was quickly recruited to represent the Universities Conference as the America East Chair of SAAC where he learned and developed as a leader in sport in the community.

Returning to train in 2003 Jarvis began training for Athens and supported his teammates to an undefeated rowing streak that was 17 races long for Canada.

The final World Cup circuit before Athens Greece Jarvis was in the eight and concluded the final six race circuit with an impressive win in Lucerne Switzerland against the entire field that would be racing in Athens.

With five weeks remaining before the Olympics a shift in the team moved Jarvis and Barber out of the eight, Jarvis joining Dave Calder in the pair who showed promise for Athens.

With little time to train and synchronize, there was an unprecedented amount of speed out of the gates and down the course with Jarvis and Calder moving straight on to the Semi-final from the opening heats in the Olympics and taking down a serious medal contender, the Skelin brothers who had been training together for 17+ years.

Both Jarvis and rower Dave Calder were disqualified during the Semi-final after a near flawless race just after qualifying the pair for the grand final in striking distance of a podium finish.

He was born in Burlington, Ontario and competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens Greece.

He is the founder of a Canada-based charity known as "I Challenge Diabetes" and provides significant grass roots support to the Canadian Public.

Jarvis was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 1 at age 13.

He wears a Medtronic insulin pump while competing, in order to mitigate the effects of his condition.

When he was rowing in college at Northeastern University, his coach told him that the diabetes would prevent him from ever rowing for the varsity team.

Despite this, Jarvis not only made the team, but was also selected as its captain in his senior year.

He went on to race for Canada for eight years including racing at the Olympics, winning gold medals and podium finishes for many world stage events and is a reputable leader of non-profit work in diabetes.

Since 2004, Jarvis realized his impact on the community of people living with diabetes.

In the following year after Athens, 2005 Jarvis raced with partner Malcolm Howard to claim the highest percentage in Canada while qualifying for the World Rowing Championships in Gifu Japan.

An irritation in Jarvis' lower back emerged to two bulging discs during the travel to Japan and left Jarvis and Howard with little time to for rehabilitation.

Howard decided to remain with his partner Jarvis and the pair managed to pull off a 4th-place finish despite the setback.

Nearly edging in for a bronze in the closing meters of the race but ran out of room.

Director of a diabetes youth expedition, in 2006, Jarvis took teens to Peru to find "diabetes maturity".

Jarvis has taken his passion for sports, coaching principles and his knowledge of the science behind diabetes and built a charity the Globe and Mail says "helps people take control of their diabetes while challenging themselves physically" - Inspire, Globe and Mail, Nov 18th, 2011 by Marjo Johne. Jarvis and a team of community leaders take on activities from basic community programs to the most extreme races Canada has to offer.

In 2011 Jarvis' team ran over 40 not-for profit programs with over 1500 participants.

A direct focus still remains on teens in transition with diabetes however I Challenge Diabetes is running programs for all ages.

Jarvis feels there is an extreme gap in the system that leaves these teens overburdened and in need of support.

A similar position he found himself in and feels grateful for the sport that forced his growth and the luck he had to find stability on his own.

As such, Jarvis' team continues to strive forward as leaders of social and educational support for all peoples, building community and sharing insight with a particular focus on teens with diabetes.

Programs currently span the provinces of BC, AB, ON and QC however participants have been known to travel from other provinces and even other countries.

Despite challenges from University coach, Jarvis determined to reach his potential pushed hard to succeed.

Leaping beyond the boundaries of university rowing he quickly realized his potential on Canada's national rowing team.

The Court saw that Canada had not struck the South African pair and the Canadians were permitted to return to racing however the decision was made too late and the Canadians were ranked 12th overall without a final race.

Jarvis has teamed up with other athletes to race the pair since.