Video of the Week: Selection and Team GB, courtesy of GB Rowing



This week's video comes to us from British Rowing, and is part of a 12 week web series entitled The Squad. This update features input from a number of the biggest names in our sport (including Greg Searle, Alex Partridge, Andy Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed, and others) about selection in Jürgen Grobler's GB Rowing system. The emphasis, as you might expect, is on the unpredictable nature of selection from year to year, as there are no guaranteed seats–a familiar idea that fosters intra-squad competition. The difference is, in Grobler's case, so many of the parts that make up the whole have Olympic and world medals already on their resumes, both adding to and taking away from the pressure of selection. Given the results from 2011, it appears (from the outside) that Grobler could field medal-winning crews in the M8+, W8+, M4-, M2-, LM4-, W4x, LW2x, and LM2x ('amongst' others) by simply leaving things the same. However, because of the elevated status of GB Rowing–the most dominant program in the world at the moment–simply winning medals of any color, it seems, will not be enough on home turf. Based on the rumors flying around across the pond, Grobler is shifting the team's priorities to maximize gold, perhaps at the expense of overall medal tally.

How much will this shake things up? The answers will follow soon enough–after all, the GB Rowing Trials will be open to the public can be viewed from public footpaths, with finals set for Sunday, March 11, 2012.

-RR

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