Blind Kitchener lawn bowler adds to decorated career

A 69-year-old athlete has been crowned champion again. CTV’s Colton Wiens caught up with the lawn bowler to hear her secrets to success.

Kitchener lawn bowler, Louise McLean, has added another gold medal to her collection and has no plans of stopping.

The 69-year-old won gold at the para bowls national championship in Nepean this month. It’s the fourth national gold medal McLean has won under the para bowls banner since 2022. She also has a bronze medal from a world event last year and lots of hardware from other lawn bowling competitions.

“I really enjoy what I’m doing, and I take it one day at a time,” McLean said.

“She’s spot on. She’s a better bowler than me, to be honest. A blind bowler beats a lot of these people in the club,” Carolyn LaRue-Campbell, McLean’s coach and director, said.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, McLean eventually moved to Kitchener and worked as a custodian at the University of Waterloo. McLean is now a member of the Heritage Greens Lawn Bowling Club in Kitchener.

She lost her sight in 2004. Two years later, a friend in a support group suggested she try the sport. McLean quickly fell in love with it and has been improving ever since.

“It’s amazing what she can do as a blind person to get so close to the jack, which is our target. Just getting a few instructions. Like ‘you were a foot narrow or a foot wide,’ and ‘you need another two yards on your distance.’ And she does it,” Leanne Franklin, president of Heritage Greens Lawn Bowling Club, said.

McLean can’t see the jack at the end of the green but can slightly see just in front of her. So, instead of a more common blue centre line down the middle of the green, she uses a white line and relies on her coach and director for guidance.

“If the jack gets moved, I have someone to just show me by their feet how far out the jack is from the centre. Because I need to know these things,” McLean said.

When she’s holding a bowl she’s nothing but serious, even in a practice.

“We know when to sort of take a little walk,” LaRue-Campbell said.

“She’s a feisty bowler. She’s a good person to have on somebody’s team because she’s good. If you give her good instructions as to distances and the width of her bowl, the angle that she’s taking, and she can deliver,” Franklin said.

She admitted she is very competitive when she on the greens.

“Don’t tell me to have fun, because once I’m on the greens, no, I am bowling,” McLean said.

Going forward, McLean will take her competitive spirit to the Atlantic International Challenge in Windsor this September, where she’ll face athletes from Ireland, Scotland and the United States.

“I know I’m going to have to really stand on my own two feet to make this work. And I’m going to try my best. I will try my best to do the best I can. When I’m there,” McLean said.

McLean’s coach and director also receives a medal when they compete together. But because McLean needs LaRue-Campbell in the competitions, she needs to fundraise twice as much as non-para-athletes. She hopes Bowls Canada can receive more funding to help athletes travel.