Lisa Roman's journey to the Olympic podium began in unlikely fashion. The Langley, B.C. product had never set foot in a racing boat prior to arriving on UFV's campus in 2007, yet with a high-performance athletic background highlighted by 14 years of competitive figure skating, she proved to be a quick study in the sport of rowing.
Under the tutelage of head coach Liz Chisholm –
herself a Cascades Hall of Famer, Class of 2020 – Roman was the Cascades' top female rower within a year, and during her second season, she tried out for and made Team B.C. for the Canada Summer Games, winning three medals in Charlottetown, PEI. She would eventually transfer to Washington State University where she fashioned a highly decorated career, highlighted by second team All-America honours as a senior. She also earned the right to represent Canada at the U23 level, helping Canada's women's eight win the gold medal and set a world age-class record at the U23 World Rowing Championships.
Roman was invited to join Rowing Canada's national training centre in 2012, and she went on to be part of five medal-winning boats at the senior World Championships (silver in 2014, 2017 and 2018, bronze in 2013 and 2015).
Roman became the first former Cascades varsity athlete to represent Canada at the Olympics, finishing fifth with the women's eight at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. She made her second Olympic appearance at the 2020 Tokyo Games (postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19) and made the most of it, joining forces with Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Christine Roper, Andrea Proske, Susanne Grainger, Madison Mailey, Sydney Payne, Avalon Wasteneys and coxswain Kristen Kit to win the gold medal, 0.91 seconds ahead of New Zealand with China coming in third.
