Michell Russell, a sprint kayaker, was born on June 27, 1992 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She started paddling at age six when her mom signed up the whole family at Abenaki Aquatic Club in Dartmouth to get outdoor exercise.
At the age of 17, she represented the province of Nova Scotia at the 2009 Canada Games where she won two gold medals in K-4 and K-2, as well as two silver medals in K-1 1000 and K-1 2000 m. She was also picked as the female K-1, to represent Canada at the 2009 Junior Worlds in Moscow Russia in the same year finishing 8th and 10th in the K-1 500 and K-1 1000 respectively. Her first World Cup tour was in 2012 where she took home a bronze in K1 200 relay. In 2013, she made four World Cup finals in K1 events and placed fourteenth in K1 200 at Senior Worlds.
Russell won the god medal in the K-1 200m and the bronze medal in the K-1 500 for Canada at the 2013 Under-23 World Championships in Welland. She is currently on the World Top Athlete list for Canoe Kayak as of 2013, which meant she has one of the best times ever recorded by a female kayaker at a world level (Wellen, 2013).
She won 3 medals for Canada during the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, gold in the K-4 500m, and adding silvers in the K-1 200m and K-1 500m events. She would compete in both K-1 events at the 2015 World Championships.
Russell was a member of the crew during the 2019 ICF World Championships that qualified Canada in the K-4 500m for Tokyo Olympics 2020.
References:
https://olympic.ca/team-canada/michelle-russell/
https://olympic.ca/2018/08/18/canadas-paddlers-ready-to-make-waves-at-the-world-championships/
https://www.tsn.ca/canada_games/story/?id=288793
https://www.the-sports.org/canoeing-world-sprint-championships–u-23-presentation-medal-winners-sup4792.html
https://canoekayak.ca/six-canadian-sprint-paddlers-punch-ticket-to-tokyo/
https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/canoe-sprint/athlete-profile-n1433172-russell-michelle.html
