In its coverage of the 2024 Olympics, Northern Virginia ABC affiliate WJLA ran a piece on a family with local connections.
A century ago, Bill Havens Sr. of Northern Virginia passed up a chance to compete in canoeing the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, staying home instead to be there for the birth of his son, Frank.
A generation later, Frank got his own shot at Olympic glory, winning silver in the canoe sprint in 1948 in London and gold four years later in Helsinki, Finland. The story is now being made into a major motion picture.
Frank’s nephew is Kirk Havens of Plainview, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He and his wife, Karla, are also both active canoeists, with Karla having served as race director of the Beaverdam Canoe Jam in Gloucester.
The Havens family story can be found online at https://wjla.com (search “Frank Havens Olympics”).
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