Getting Back on the Horse

One of the hardest things about our sport is the "we would have" stories. You know--that season that the team was doing so well, and then that one guy fell down the stairs and broke his leg and you didn't even make the final. Or the race where there was a miscommunication about which move would happen where, and the boat finished just outside the medals. You swap those stories and inevitably someone says, "Come on, you know that if things had been different, you would have won."

The thing is: they weren't different. The crew that won, won. Our sport, just like every other, is affected by freak acts of nature, mistakes, health problems, and plain bad luck. Just like every other sport, the crew that wins the race is the fastest over that particular course, on that particular day. You train not just to be the fastest, fittest rower, but also the one best able to recover from a bobble, the one healthy enough not to get sick easily, the one who can anticipate not just the expected but also the unexpected.

In our final at the Lucerne World Cup last Sunday, we were in fourth place coming into the final few hundred meters. We called our final sprint...and seconds later, I heard a sickly crunching sound and the boat pulled hard to the side. Looking over my shoulder, I saw something I've never seen before in my career--a teammate's oar sticking directly up, jammed in the oarlock. We responded as practiced rowers do to a crab: (1) get the oar un-stuck! (2) everyone okay? (3) get back in the race! But as we started step 3, the oar snapped completely in half.

It was not a happy feeling for us, nor for any competitive athlete, to paddle across the finish line, make a U-turn, and then row past the medal docks, past every spectator on the course, back up to the dock and the boatyard. We'd all just spent the last several months training for a race that we did not get to finish. Having the opportunity to race taken from you is a feeling worse than losing.

We all took a bit of time to calm down, cool down, and then headed to the grandstand to cheer on the rest of our team--in what turned out to be the United States' best World Cup ever. As we watched our teammates make history, we committed to coming back to our next race with this one as fuel for the fire--to channel our anger and frustration into boat speed.

The next day, someone emailed me the World Cup points tally--the listing of every country's performance across all events. The United States sat at the top, just two points ahead of New Zealand. Tracing my finger down to the women's quad, I saw that for finishing our race--instead of U-turning and taking the broken oar back to the dock--we'd earned our team...two points.

The rest of Team USA set a very high bar at Lucerne, and we are back to training hard and rising to that challenge. For now--lots of miles, more selection, and working every practice to earn the results we want in South Korea. Getting back on the horse is a lot easier when you know exactly where you want to go on it.

From Princeton--happy training and Go USA!

Lucerne Finals Day!

First 500, long and strong, in our repechage yesterday.

This morning, we line up against Australia, Germany, Poland, Italy, and Belarus, and race for gold. The women's quadruple sculls will be a great event to watch--there are boats with pedigree and experience, and boats like us that are coming in with focus, excitement, and the knowledge that if we have a great race, we can exceed all expectations.

Staying focused at the start with the swimmers and cowbells!

Yesterday, we raced our repechage, and had our best piece together yet. With so many things going on around you--from the giant, singing Dutch crowd at the starting line swimming area, to the warm-up area wash that shakes up the 500m mark of the course, to the other countries in the race who throw in moves out of nowhere--it is important to be finding our rhythm and race, with awareness but not distraction, and we did a great job of that yesterday. I'm very excited to race today and build on that--and to put all of the work we've done together into something awesome!

We line up at 11:27am local (5:27am EST/2:27am PST) and you can watch a live video and audio feed here. You can also check results post-racing here.

Team USA is doing a fantastic job at this regatta, and we have many, many boats contesting for medals today. Send fast thoughts our way--we're racing to put USA on top of the medal stand!!! Go USA!

Racing Underway in Lucerne!

  Yesterday was our first chance to get out and race outside of the squad, and across the board, Team USA raced aggressively and set a good tone for the regatta.

Erin and Elle off the start!

  Our pair, Elle Logan and Erin Cafaro, laid down some fast 500m splits en route to a solid win in their heat. We are all cheering them on for their semi this afternoon!

Stesha, Natalie, Adrienne "Hammer", and Kate racing to a record!

  Our two quads also did a great job yesterday. USA1, with Kate Bertko, Adrienne Martelli, Natalie Dell, and Stesha Carlé, pushed through the field to break the world record, but finishing a hair behind Germany. The rematch on Sunday promises to be more great racing! Our USA2 quad of Megan Kalmoe, Kara Kohler, Kady Glessner, and just-Wednesday-qualified-for-the-Olympics-in-the-1x Gevvie Stone had a tough draw and raced well. They will be racing for top 2 in the repechage this morning.

Me, Susan, Jamie, Amanda, Meghan, Taylor, Caroline, Caryn, and Mary!

  We had a really solid first race together in the afternoon and were excited to learn afterwards that we'd also broken the world record. More importantly, though, we qualified for the final Sunday, and are excited for the opportunity to race our brains out again!

Ken bending it in his heat!

  Our men's single, Ken Jurkowski, finished a strong second in his heat to advance to the quarterfinal today. And our lightweight women's double raced well in the bumpy conditions and will race the repechage for a spot in Sunday's final.
  In the meantime, we are enjoying Lucerne as always--the beautiful city, unbeatable breakfasts, and friendly people.
  Thanks for your support and GO USA!

Finals: Sunday in Lucerne

Final strokes of the rep!  Photo courtesy row2k.com

After a good solid race in our rep yesterday, we are feeling confident and excited coming into this afternoon's final. Reps aren't always a good way of gauging your speed, because you never know what other countries' race strategies are to qualify for the final, but we had a solid and aggressive piece that we are ready to build off of for today's final.

We are lining between Great Britain, the defending World Champs, and Australia, with Germany (World Cup leaders this year), New Zealand, and Ukraine filling out the rest of the starting blocks. Our race goes off the line at 1:29pm (7:29am Eastern/4:29am Pacific), and there will be live video streaming through the World Rowing website at http://www.worldrowing.com/video. You can also see the splits and results via live race tracker at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results.

The weather has been interesting here--alternating lovely sunny skies with rain and occasional thunderstorms. There will be variable weather this afternoon, but whether 70, sunny and tailwind or 60, bumpy and pouring, we're excited to get to the line and drive down the race course with everything we've got.

Some USA crews have already raced this morning in the B finals, and we will have crews racing throughout the morning in the A finals, so be sure to tune in to the live streaming video starting at 10:15am to see the racing! Thanks for the support, and GO USA!

Lucerne 2011: Day One Done!

Off the line in our heat!    Photo courtesy row2k.com

We had our first race together today, and while we definitely have places to go, it was a solid starting point. We lined up against Germany (World Cup 1 and 2 winners), Australia (who I raced last weekend at Henley), China, and Russia. We ended up a second and a half off of Germany, and will be racing in the rep tomorrow with a solid field, including Ukraine (World Cup and Worlds medalists from the last few years). We’re racing at 3:12pm (9:12am Eastern, 6:12am Pacific) and you can see live results at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results.

Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols dominating the LW2x

USA overall did very well for Day 1, with some extremely strong performances to boot. The lightweight women’s double of Julie Nichols and Kristin Hedstrom won both their heat and quarterfinal races, making it look easy in the heat by nearly a length of open). The women’s pair of Taylor Ritzel and Caroline Lind also moved out to open water in winning their heat, and the women’s eight won their heat by a length after a fighting back through the field. Our men’s eight also had a great race today. Our guys went for it against defending World Champions Germany, were within a second of them the entire race, and nearly caught them in the sprint. The other heat of the men’s eight featured a 0.01 second win by the Netherlands over Worlds silver-medalists Great Britain—a big sprint that produced one bowball’s lead and avoided a trip to the reps for the Dutch.

M1x Ken Jurkowski

Another exciting performance of the day was from men’s single Ken Jurkowski, who took second in his heat before winning his quarterfinal (Mahe Drysdale took third) to advance to the A/B semi tomorrow.

The women’s double of Sarah Trowbridge and Kate Bertko finished a tight second in their rep this afternoon after finishing a tight second in their heat this morning, and advanced to the A/B semi tomorrow. Our men’s double of Will Miller and Glenn Ochal put on a good sprint to win their rep and also advanced to tomorrow’s A/B semi. Our other pair, Meghan Musnicki and Susan Francia, finished second in their heat to advance to the A/B semi, where they will face off against USA1.

Banks, Stitt, Monaghan, and Stafford in the M4-

There was also exciting racing by our men’s fours. Both took a trip through the reps after tough draws this morning, and both won their reps, including a win by Silas Stafford, Ryan Monaghan, Sam Stitt and David Banks over defending World Champions France. The two fours will face off tomorrow in the A/B semifinal. The second women’s lightweight double of Ursula Grobler and Abby Broughton also made it through to the semifinals after a trip through the reps, and will race alongside USA1 in the A/B semi tomorrow.

Our men’s pair, Justin Stangel and Tom Peczek, will race in the C final tomorrow, as will our lightweight men’s four and men’s quad. After an extremely close rep, women’s single Gevvie Stone will also be racing in the C final tomorrow.

That’s all from Lucerne—bedtime here! Check back tomorrow for more updates and photos. Go USA!

***All photos courtesy USRowing.***

Ready to Race: Lucerne World Cup 2011!

After a whirlwind of racing last weekend and traveling on Monday, we have gotten in a good few days of training and are all gearing up to race tomorrow. The last few days have been pretty uneventful, but this afternoon we had a freak rain/thunder/hailstorm at the course! We just managed to get our boat racked and tied down before the deluge started...our lightweight men's four, however, wasn't so lucky, and had to row through the craziness just to get in.

We haven't had much of a chance to explore, but I have managed to take a few photos around the city and at the course. I put together a little slideshow here:

I am racing tomorrow in the women's quadruple sculls at 12:30pm Lucerne time (that's 6:30am Eastern, 3:30am Pacific, in case you're still up!) My boatmates Natalie Dell, Megan Kalmoe, and Stesha Carle and I are all excited for our first race together and to get out there and go! You can follow along at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results to see both the live race results and a list of race results from the day.

First glimpse of us in action--this afternoon's race against the thunderstorm!

Thanks for all of the support and cheering during last week's racing...it means a lot to me and all of the other rowers here. This is our first official race of the season, and we can't wait to get to the starting line tomorrow. Boom. Go USA!