Kathleen Heddle, who won three Olympic gold medals rowing for Canada in the 1990s and inspired a generation of athletes, died on Monday at her home in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was 55.
Her death was announced in a statement from her family released by Rowing Canada Aviron, the national governing body for rowing in the country. The statement said that Ms. Heddle had battled for years with breast and lymph node cancer, and later, melanoma and brain cancer.
In the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Ms. Heddle and her rowing partner, Marnie McBean, won two gold medals, in the pairs and the eights.