Cam Karwowski's cycling and culinary journey
Just in culinary terms alone, it’s been quite the journey for junior world track cycling champion Cam Karwowski.
The former Cycling Southland and Academy Southland rider returned to Invercargill and the SIT Velodrome recently, a chance to catch up with old friends and have a roll on the boards that he grew up on.
These days a qualified builder in Cambridge, Karwowski first arrived in Invercargill in 2008 as a 17-year-old, eager to further his cycling career at the home of the country’s first indoor velodrome.
His mother flew south with him, ensuring he had at least one go-to cooking option in his armoury - a basic roast.
“I’m a bit of a chef now, but back then I didn’t know what to do in the kitchen. Mum showed me how to make a roast chicken and everything after that was trial and error.”
And there were a few errors, as friend Hamish Tomlinson could attest.
Peanut butter sushi, pasta and jam for breakfast. That sort of thing.
At the time Karwowski was a fringe national junior selection. He’d been included in the squad for the Oceania championships in Australia the previous year and was determined to make the junior worlds team in 2009.
Photo: From left, Hamish Tomlinson, Cam Karwowski, Eugene Bonthuys and Bruce Ross.
Despite having an endurance background, his times were good enough to see him included in the junior men’s team sprint alongside Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster.
In Moscow, the New Zealand combination topped qualifying and then edged Germany in the gold medal final in what was a major moment for track sprinting in this country - the first time New Zealand had won a world championship in sprinting at any level.
Mitchell and Webster, along with Southland’s Eddie Dawkins, have gone on to put New Zealand on the world map in terms of team sprinting, with three world titles and an Olympic silver, and Karwowski still gets shivers when he thinks about how he was there at the beginning.
“It was a surreal feeling. I remember when we first finished I kept saying, ‘how good is that, how good is that?’, I couldn’t stop saying it. I could hardly believe it, it’s still really cool to think about, even to this day.”
After those world championships, Karwowski’s focus switched back to endurance riding.
There was never any question about his desire or ability, but his timing proved to be a little off as he found himself competing amongst a new wave of top young track riders coming through the system.
“I might have been more suited to sprinting looking back now, and who knows where that would have gone,” he said.
“I went to a dozen World Cups, but didn’t make the Olympic team for London or Rio. When I wasn’t selected for Rio I decided to end my career and get into a trade and I’m a qualified builder now.”
Despite shifting to Cambridge when the national programme centralised around the newly-built Avantidrome, Karwowski still thinks of Invercargill fondly and he returned briefly a couple of years ago during a short stint as a lead tandem rider for the national paracycling programme.
He said being part of Academy Southland during his time in Invercargill had a significant impact on his development, not the least of which was the nutrition lessons which are a big focus in the two-year programme.
These days he’s enjoying his building, and also an active life which still includes plenty of cycling for fun.
“Not being an athlete anymore means you can open your world up. You can go and experience everything and that’s something I was looking forward to towards the end of my career, which made me think that the time was right.
“I’m probably a bit more into mountain biking at the moment, but I’ll road ride probably twice a week, do a bit of running or swimming. I’m really into my mountain climbing and I’m trying to do a bit more alpine stuff this year.”
