Christopher Jarvis (born September 10, 1980) is a Canadian rower. 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.
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Overview
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.
Founder of I Challenge Diabetes
Inspired by his own journey living with diabetes, Jarvis founded I Challenge Diabetes in 2007 to help young people build confidence, find community, and overcome the challenges and stigma often associated with the condition. Having benefited from the support of organizations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), where he has since become a regular speaker, Jarvis understands the importance of a strong support network. Through I Challenge Diabetes, he encourages individuals to see that diabetes does not have to define or limit their potential. What began as a program focused on teenagers has since grown into a national organization offering programs and support for people of all ages across several Canadian provinces.
Rowing and not-for-profit background
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. 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. 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. 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.