Olympian Nevin Harrison, who trains on Lake Lanier, won her preliminary heat Wednesday morning and advances to the semifinals in the Women's C-1 200m Sprint at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Harrison, 19, won the second heat of the event by more than a boat length with an Olympic-best time of 44.938. Katherin Nuevo Segura of Cuba finished second in the heat with a time of 46.533.
Her time was the fastest of all competitors in the preliminaries. Harrison will next compete in the event's semifinals, which are schedule for Thursday morning Tokyo time (Wednesday night Eastern time).
Harrison, who is from Seattle, first made it into the 2020 Olympics after winning the women's C1 200m at the 2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged, Hungary in August 2019. She was the first American to ever win a world title in a canoe sprint event.
Since then, Harrison has trained at the Lake Lanier Olympic Venue in Gainesville with her coach, Zsolt Szadovszki.
"I never thought that I'd be living in Georgia, but you know this place has its charm," Harrison said. "I love training on Lake Lanier. It's a really, really incredible venue."
Harrison said that while she was originally disappointed that the 2020 Olympics were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the delay gave her time to mentally prepare for the games.
However, Harrison said she was still disappointed about the absence of spectators at this year's games, as this meant her family could not make the trip to Tokyo. Harrison said while her family was very sad that they could not watch her compete in person, they will be rooting her on from home.
