While not on a kayak, you can find Jonas Ecker doing cross-training. Sometimes on a cycle, sometimes Nordic skiing.
On special occasions, you can find him glued to a chair with his eagle eyes on an embroidery set.
Some valuable downtime is what most high-performance athletes crave after the hustle and bustle of an Olympic year and Ecker was no different.
“It's something I can do relaxing. If you're doing some recovery or just sitting around, it's a fun way to be creative while not worrying about hurting yourself. It's just entertaining,” he said.
The Canoe Sprint star made his Games debut at Paris 2024 with teammate Aaron Small, finishing eighth in the men's kayak double 500m.
Ecker also competed in the kayak single 1000m, but the 22-year-old still pinches himself looking back at the years that led to that moment.
“Last year was incredible. To go from 2022, just dreaming about or being my first-year racing at the senior level to then realising that Paris was the next goal. To go through the qualification process, getting a spot in early 2024 and being able to race was a whirlwind,” he said.
“My partner came with my family to Paris along with six friends from high school. They were my friends when I started paddling and have followed my paddling career throughout. Before I even qualified, they had bought tickets to the events that I hypothetically could be racing on in Paris. Thankfully, we qualified and they got to use their tickets. That was special.”
Despite having little time away from a kayak, the energy of the Bellingham native is contagious.
Back in training in the late winter, Ecker has been burning the midnight oil, and he was rewarded earlier this month by making the US team again.
Introduced to kayaking at age nine by his mother — herself a Canoe Ocean Racing enthusiast — Ecker quickly found his stride.
“We trained sprint during the week and then went surf skiing or ocean racing on the weekends. It's interesting because we started paddling at the same time and kind of chose the two different paths to elite paddling. I still enjoy ocean racing and surfski paddling. I still do local races,” Ecker said.
“Canoe Sprint was first described to me as Olympic sprint kayaking or Olympic Canoe Sprint. The Olympic Games was the pinnacle and to represent the US national team at that level was always a dream. In 2023, I was competing in both races such as the Gorge Downwind Championship. It's just one of the largest events in the world for ocean racing, while also competing at World Championships for sprint.
“It was only at the end of that year we started Olympic preparations. And I chose sprint because we had a chance and I'm happy I did. It doesn't mean I'll never go back to surfski. I still train sometimes and I have a couple of races this year, but right now the focus is on sprint.”
More impressively, Ecker earned his undergraduate degree in marine biology while pursuing his Olympic dreams.
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Given his deep connection to water, it was no surprise that his academic focus followed suit.
His hometown club is packed with ocean racing athletes, and time in saltwater only made him more curious about marine environments and sustainability.
Combining that passion with artificial intelligence, Ecker built a machine-learning model for his thesis to study underwater ecosystems.
“If I couldn't be actively paddling, I'd like to at least be thinking about it more or looking at water per se. I used a machine-learning model — artificial intelligence that was trained on pictures of a subtitled ecosystem for everything under the water. I looked at pictures of rocks and the organisms or animals that live and plants that live on those rocks.
“I trained the model and used the model to identify what was there. How much of what was there? And then we can apply that model to learn how to look at more images. And so we have a data set that stands 10/15/20 years. So basically, it is about creating a model that can help us monitor and better understand how these ecosystems, habitats, and communities are changing over time.”
Balancing two full-time jobs, as he puts it, has been a challenging task but he credits the University of Washington for their role in helping him.
Unlike rowing or basketball, Canoe Sprint does not have a collegiate programme in the US, making it harder for Ecker to often communicate with his peers.
“In the eyes of my university, I was just another student. Regardless, if I was going to the Olympic Games, that was especially interesting coming from the University of Washington because of how many rowing or crew athletes come out of that school,” he said.
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“I never skipped a workout for school, but I did skip a couple of assignments for workouts. But it was all about communicating with my professors, and my faculty and making sure that we were all on the same page. I wanted to succeed in the classroom and outside of it, doing whatever I could to make sure that they knew I wasn't just going off.”
It took a lot of prioritising and sacrificing along with his teammate Small, who was also a student at the University of Washington for the duo to achieve what they did.
Fortunately, a relatively higher concentration of Canoe Sprint athletes on the West Coast, especially in Washington, did help them.
“Even at the university, there were five to six other national team athletes in kayak and canoe. So we had a strong community there,” Ecker said.
“But when I'd come to a professor and say ‘I have to miss class for competition’, they're like, 'Oh, you're on the rowing team'. My university is very well known for its success in rowing as I mentioned earlier. But I'm like, 'No, they go backwards. I go forwards. I have two blades. They have one.'"
Those nuances may confuse outsiders, but once people understood, Ecker found them supportive and curious to learn more.
With the first International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint World Cup just two weeks away, most of the paddling world is deep into final prep.
Hailing it as a fantastic competition, Ecker, however, revealed that he will not be participating in them, with his focus set to be on a research symposium.
Last year too, he did not compete in them but that does not mean he has not set targets for his athletic career.
His first major competition of 2025 will be the ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal, in July.
“I want to take advantage of my last year at the U23 level. It's a competitive atmosphere. And although I'm not going to the World Cups, the U23s will serve as a warm-up for the senior World Championships. I know that I'll be competing in the K1 1000m and K1 500m at the U23s this year,” Ecker said.
“I'm hoping to defend my title in the 1000m. We'll see what happens in the 500m. I'd like to see what I can do there.”
Looking ahead to the senior World Championships, Ecker’s focus remains sharp, though team selections are still pending.
“We have a couple more camps for team selection, but I'm hoping to be on the team boat at that level. It should be pretty exciting. I like to think there's no one right path to achieve success. In many years it might be the right choice for me to compete at the World Cups but this year, it's just not the right choice. And I'm happy with that.”
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