Sharon Hambrook made her synchronized swimming debut with the Canadian national squad at the 1979 Pan American Games, where she won silver in the team event. The following year she partnered with Kelly Kryczka, who had won gold in the duet with the retired Helen Vanderburg at the Pan American tournament, and won her first Canadian title in the duet. Together they defeated Penny and Vicky Vilagos at the Canadian Championships in 1982 and earned the right to represent their country in the duet at that year’s World Championships, where they won gold in the duet and the team competitions, while Kryczka also took silver in the solo. In 1983 it was Hambrook’s turn to capture silver in the solo, this time at the Pan American Games, where she the duo also earned gold in the team event. They had lost their duet crown that year to the Vilagos sisters, but regained it in time to compete for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics, where they won silver in the duet. Hambrook was also eliminated in the opening round of the solo, despite earning the third-best score in the figures, as only one participant per nation was allowed to advance, and eventual silver medalist Carolyn Waldo had the second-best result. Hambrook and Kryczka retired after the Games; the former took up coaching and was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1996. She was nearly killed in an automobile crash in 1986, but recovered and entered the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology to pursue a degree in broadcasting.
Canada