Top U.S. Woman Kayaker Presses On, but Her Sport Still Doesn’t Get Much Press

Sheila Conover is a world class kayaker. Kayaker?

“I guess the average American doesn’t even know what a kayak is,” said the Orange Coast College student from Newport Beach who finished sixth in the 1984 Olympics. “It’s too bad that Americans don’t recognize the minor sports as they do in other countries.”

Now training with weights, Conover, 23, paddles daily at 7 a.m. in her 17-foot-long kayak on the Newport Beach Back Bay in preparation for the Aug. 20-24 Kayak World Championship in West Germany. She was just named the nation’s No. 1 female kayaker by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

“It hit me out of the blue. I was really shocked, but exhilarated,” said Conover, who stands nearly 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. “I guess I had a good competitive year in 1986.” She paddled in England, Tennessee, Houston, Montreal and Hawaii, winning gold and bronze medals.

Despite the minor attention given to her sport, “it’s as competitive as any, and all of us keep working hard to reach our full potential,” she said. “Sometimes I wonder whether all the practice is worth it, but then I’m right back telling myself, ‘Of course it is.’ ”

The drive to succeed for any kayaker comes from within, she said. “There’s that driving need to be the best, to cross the finish line first,” Conover said, claiming that she always has been a competitive person, even when playing volleyball and swimming at Newport Harbor High School and paddling outrigger canoes with the local canoe club.

Her coach, Bill Whitford of Newport Beach, substantiates that. “Conover is continuing to climb and has that special something in her eyes,” he said. “She’s not only a devoted athlete, but also our greatest ambassador.”

No wonder. “This sport is like poetry in motion,” she said, describing the movement of the boat and paddler. “It’s really beautiful even though the paddler is sweating and paddling his guts out. It looks so fluid and easy to the spectator.”

Comparing herself to a runner, she said that “you can’t mess up and make one mistake.” She noted that the 500-meter races she paddles only take about 1 minute, 55 seconds. “If the boat rocks or one stroke is different . . . well, it might mean you lose.”

Even though she is in training for the August world championships, there is a greater goal she is working toward. “All of us are really looking ahead to the 1988 Olympics,” she said. “That’s the one. You can’t imagine the feeling you get inside at the opening ceremony.”

There are harp-a-grams, strip-a-grams, hug-a-grams, and now there’s violin-a-gram, and for $50 you get three songs played by violinist Jennifer Silk, 27, of Laguna Hills.

“I’m a soloist and entrepreneur,” she said. “It’s a musician’s dream.”

She also calls herself a contemporary cupid.

Well, she does have a bow.

Chicken soup with matzo balls cooked by a Jewish mother is legend as a cure-all, but it may have a different taste these days, says Rose L. Lacher of Orange, who is working with the American Cancer Society to gather Jewish recipes for a cookbook.

“We have to make changes to make food healthier,” said Lacher, of the Jewish Community Center of Central Orange County in Garden Grove, in announcing the association with the Cancer Society.

She tried a new recipe for time-honored matzo balls that meet guidelines of the Cancer Society and admitted, “I’ll tell you the truth, they didn’t taste as good as the original--but they’re healthier.”

People have to try the new recipe a few times until it becomes acceptable, she said. But no matter what changes are made, she urged people with recipes of Jewish origin to send them into the center by Friday.

Meantime, if you want to give matzo balls a try, here’s the recipe:

2 eggs, separated

1/2 cup matzo meal

1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat egg whites until stiff, add yolks and continue beating. Fold in matzo meal and salt. Let stand 5 minutes. Form into small balls and drop into boiling soup. Slant lid on pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Serves 3 or 4.

Enjoy.

Acknowledgments--Los Alamitos School District nurse Meredith Meals, who uses hand puppets she has made to help her teach acceptable health habits to students, was honored as Nurse of the Year by the California School Nurses Organization. Her name now enters the competition for national honors.