In describing the thoughts and feelings of racing against the world's best, the 26-year-old told the Toronto Star, "As far as pain goes, you've got an immediate choice. Do I choose to keep pushing it or do I choose to relent and give in to my body's reaction to working too hard?"

It's that ability to keep pushing that made him an Olympic champion and one of the world's best kayakers.

And while he's faced that physical question in almost every race he's ever competed in on the world stage, never had his mental limits been tested as much as they were Saturday in Beijing, China.

Coming off a race that pushed him down to a low point he had never reached before, with his mind racing, keeping him awake throughout the night, van Koeverden was now facing a similar question in his head -- do I choose to keep pushing or do I relent to self-doubt?

Van Koeverden answered the question emphatically, roaring out to a boat-length lead in the K-1 500-metre final. Though he was caught in the final metres by Australia's Ken Wallace, who edged him by less than four-tenths of a second, the Burloak Canoe Club member had delivered an Olympic silver medal under the most trying circumstances of his career.

"It wasn't my best regatta, I didn't race as well as I know I can or as well as I've proven I can," van Koeverden said. "I'm thankful for the fact that I was able to win the silver and that, even on not my best day, I was able to get on the Olympic podium."

As if the gods had not played with his mind enough, the scoring clock initially showed Great Britain's Tim Brabants winning silver.

"I was pretty excited, but then I saw Tim with the silver and it sucks when you've crossed the line thinking you've beat someone," van Koeverden said.

When the final results corrected the error moments later, van Koeverden thrust his fist into the air.

Watching van Koeverden smile as he received his medal, Burloak Canoe Club head coach Adam Oldershaw said, "He should be happy. On any given day, any one of those guys could be standing on the podium. He's not there because there's nobody to challenge him. These other guys are fast. It's not a cakewalk."

That's a fact that van Koeverden's success can sometimes mask. Just four days before winning his third Olympic medal, van Koeverden had gone faster over 500m than anybody else in the world ever has. That's a testament to how far he has raised the bar in his sport.

Saturday, he showed just how far he can take himself in one day.

In the 24 hours between his eighth-place finish in the 1,000m that saw him deliver a heartfelt apology to Canada on national TV and the 500m final, van Koeverden said he received encouragement and support from his coaches, teammates and other athletes as well as dozens of e-mails from back home. Not much of it immediately put his mind at ease. He tried reading, cold showers, anything to help him sleep, but he tossed and turned all night.

Van Koeverden said he is always nervous before a race and that usually fuels him in his performance. Referring back to his sports psychology class at McMaster University, he recalled a graph that showed how mounting stress and expectations can improve performance until it reaches a certain point, at which it drops off dramatically.

"It just became absolutely too much to handle and I didn't think I had that in me," he said. "I'm not blaming (the 1,,000m result) on the pressure. I just didn't deal with it as effectively as I would have liked.

"Thankfully, I've not had too much opportunity to deal with failure in my career," he said. "My mom made it clear that it was a time to grow."

So, just like when his aching muscles screamed in the final strokes of a race, it was time to quiet the thoughts racing through his head by proving that he is among the world's best at what he does.

Van Koeverden delivered.