FORMER St Columba Anglican School student Peter Lancashire is on a fast-track to Olympic glory.
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Currently, Lancashire is training for the junior world championships with the Canadian team.
They left for Trakai Lithuania on July 22 where he will be the only Australian competing with the team in the uncoxed four.
The team are working hard with three sessions per day, seven days per week.
His success at a young age came as no surprise to many.
At school, he quickly came through the ranks and in 2015 won gold medals in both the Junior Men's quad sculls and the Junior Men's Eight at the Canadian National Championships in Ontario.
The six-foot-five, 95-kilogram monster possesses the physical attributes for a successful rower and currently holds the record on the rowing machine for anyone in his age group.
Mother, Jen Law, said the 17-year-old went over to Canada for an opportunity, but he has never forgotten his roots in Port Macquarie.
She knows more than most the hard work he has put in.
“You see a talented person who wants to make the Olympic team,” she said.
“But eventually his goals will become clearer over time. He doesn’t need to make that decision just yet.
With the sport of rowing still at an amateur level, being a professional rower is unlikely.
“But it will help with his education, give him world experience and leadership skills as he progresses through life,” Jen said.
The Port Macquarie rower moved to Canada in 2014 and has been attending the famous Brentwood College on Vancouver Island.
The College is well-renowned for both its rowing program which has produced 22 Olympic-rowing athletes as well as possessing an excellent academic record.
A handful of those 22 Olympians have achieved gold-medal successes.
Lancashire made the Canadian under-19 national team last year when he was just 16.
He is currently training at the Canadian National Rowing Centre with the Junior National (under 19) Team in Ontario.
Recently, Lancashire won a scholarship to the University of Washington, in Seattle, after their coach recruited him following an impressive showing in the national titles.
“He’s undoubtedly the type of person who can be a professional Canadian athlete,” Mrs Law said.
As for a goal of making a play for the Canadian rowing team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games?
“Anything is possible, he will still be young, but we will wait and see.”