RowingRelated

In light of our recent opinion piece on the chatter surrounding USRowing in the wake of Rio's results, there has been a lot of back-and-forth about what 'coaching' means, and about how that relates to the athletes, and the wider culture of a team. While our position in the opinion piece was founded on the idea that the athletes were 'bought in' and executing the program as laid out by the coaches to the best of their abilities, U.S. national team veteran Mike Gennaro believes that some doubts crept in along the way, creating cracks in the team-wide trust that later became rifts.

O'Leary (left) and Ellen Tomek on the podium in 2014 (Photo: USRowing/Ed Moran) Meghan O'Leary is much more than just an outstanding rowing talent. In fact, Meghan was a two-sport varsity athlete at Virginia —and neither sport was rowing. Growing up in the South, O'Leary wasn't exposed to rowing until she arrived at UVA, where one of her college roommates introduced her to the weird hours and extensive training schedule associated with our sport. Still, it wasn't until after college that she got bit by the rowing bug—having bantered back and forth with Virginia's Kevin Sauer , who suspected that she might have a talent for rowing, O'Leary decided to Google places to row near Hartford, where she was working full time for ESPN. And the rest, as they say, is history. Here's Meghan's take on how it all went down. Thanks very much to Meghan for doing the interview! You can stay up to date on Meghan's progress via her website , listed in our ...

The 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam are fast approaching, and today we're taking an inside look at training with the U.S. men's eight, and the British men's four and pair with coxswain, in the form of three videos produced by crew members. The above showcases the GB men's four—the odds-on favorite to win another world title this year—and introduces each of the athletes by way of micro-interviews. And, what sets this video apart is the inclusion of their chief coach, Jürgen Grobler, who adds his two cents at the end of the piece.

The U.S. senior national team has been announced , and its a formidable group that will be heading to Amsterdam later this month for the 2014 World Rowing Championships. And, thanks to USRowing and Curtis Jordan , we've got a inside look at this year's squad. While there are several new-look crews set to enter the fray on the Bosbaan, there are also a number of well-established names on the roster, including three very notable returners—on the women's side, Eleanor Logan is back in the women's eight (where she has won two-straight Olympic gold medals) after a season in the single (and a very successful one at that, making the final at the world championships in her first go around in the boat class), and 2012 Olympian Gevvie Stone will represent the U.S. again in the W1x; on the men's side, two-time Olympian David Banks is back in the mix, sitting in the two seat of the eight.

Not all that long ago, Matt Miller —six seat of the U.S. men's eight—did a series of blog posts for us, while he and his Virginia teammates were taking on all comers in the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta (where Miller and the Cavaliers reached the semifinals). (Click the links for parts one , two , three , four , five , six , seven , eight , and nine of that series.) Since then, Matt has done a lot of rowing and sculling at a very high level, and has also upped his rowing journalism game—these two videos (above and below) are parts one and two of an ongoing project documenting his summer of racing with the U.S. national team in Europe. And, from the look of it, they're managing to have at least a little fun. Some of the highlights include an interview with 2012 Olympian Steve Kasprzyk (Interlocutor: "Would you be willing to answer a few questions for the camera?" Steve: "Well, the honest answer is no, and does that count as one?"); Matt ...

This week's Sunday-edition video comes to us from the idyllic setting for the second World Rowing Cup stop of the 2014 season, Lake Aiguebelette. While it's the picture of natural splendor (and where Jamie Koven won his world title in 1997 ), it's not the easiest name to pronounce, or spell. Fortunately, Nathaniel Reilly-O'Donnell has you covered. Off to Egg-baguette for the @WorldRowing Cup. — N. Reilly-O'Donnell (@nrodtweets) June 18, 2014

Collegiate programs aren't the only snowbirds in the American rowing community. The U.S. national team has been training in California of late, taking advantage of what has been, even for California, unseasonably warm weather and calm conditions. These videos come by way of U.S. national team high performance director Curtis Jordan , and in the clips from the men's training sessions, you can hear coach Luke McGee's voice over the megaphone. Coming up soon on RR: A coaches' corner piece on avoiding subconscious complacency (how can we push beyond our imaginary limits?), and a look inside the inner workings of California Rowing Club . -RR

We said it at the time, and it held true for the 2013 World Rowing Championships—the performance of Team USA at the final World Rowing Cup made a strong statement about their intentions, both for the 2013 season, as well as the long road to Rio. Not only did the new additions to the men's national team staff—men's coach Luke McGee and high performance director Curtis Jordan —make their presence felt immediately, the women's team continued to push the boundaries of the sport, setting yet another world best time in the eight (with yet another new lineup). In a word- DOMINATION! US Women's 8+ win setting a new World Record at #Wrclucerne http://t.co/lQ6ZYyuRnl — usrowing (@usrowing) July 17, 2013 The men's eight scored the first victory over the Germans since 2009, and the men's four held off a very strong Australian crew in a wire-to-wire win. While the results on the water were very impressive, equally so was the perspective of the athletes winning gold...

Seth Weil had a phenomenal year. Having begun his career as a club oarsman at the University of California, Davis, under head coach Sam Sweitzer , Weil began training in the single shortly after finishing his intercollegiate career, first at his old program, then at GMS , and finally under the tutelage of Carlos Dinares . Then, following roughly a year of training at Lake Samish, an opportunity to attend a training camp at Chula Vista with the U.S. national team arose. Weil immediately made an impression, despite not having rowed as a sweep oarsman in some time, and began to rise through the ranks. With pair partner Henrik Rummel , Weil won the NSR I, and from there earned a seat in what had been deemed the top priority crew for the U.S.: the men's four. Lucerne was the site of the third World Rowing Cup this season, and Weil and the U.S. men's four immediately made an impression , winning the heat and setting themselves up as probable favorites to take gold in the final. An...

U.S. Senior Trials wrapped up yesterday, with eleven crews earning berths for the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, South Korea. Among those crews was a new-look duo of Craftsbury's John Graves (check out his RR interview following his 2013 NSR I victory here ) and Ben Dann , shown in the video above during a training session in Vermont. Graves and Dann edged Potomac's Willy Cowles and another RR interviewee, UVa alum  Matt Miller , by roughly three seconds to earn the trip. The result was one of two victories for Craftsbury's young Green Racing Project —a live-in training program hosted at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center with the dual goal of developing athletes for international level rowing and Nordic skiing (read more about the GRP, with input from Graves, head coach Dan Roock , and Judy Geer , in my feature in the upcoming issue of ROWING Magazine )—as Stephen Whelpley also punched his ticket to Chungju, winning the men's single. For a complete look at...

For the third straight week, our video focuses on the Charles River, but this time it's all about the visiting team. Yale entered as No. 12 to Harvard-Radcliffe's No. 7, but the Bulldog women's eight jumped out to an early lead that they refused to relinquish in tailwind conditions in Boston, with Northeastern trailing in third. The following day, Yale backed up their victory over the Black and White with a defeat of No. 9 Brown on the Housatonic—by nearly 10 seconds. It appears some reshuffling of the rankings is in order, as Will Porter's Yale squad is showing some familiar midseason speed and seems to be in great shape with the conference championships looming—but they weren't the only ones looking in top form.

USRowing released the official roster for 2012 Senior and Junior Worlds this morning, and on the list are a number of very familiar faces. The senior team includes last year's fourth place finisher in the lightweight men's single, Andrew Campbell , who will be gunning for the podium in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, as will Beijing Olympian  Will Daly (racing in the men's pair along with Notre Dame grad, two-time C.R.A.S.H.-B. Sprints champ, and RR interviewee Greg Flood ), following the duo's near miss in the LM2x at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. Flood, who made the final eight competing for selection in the LM4- this year, will be appearing at his first senior worlds–likely with many more to come. The men's pair with coxswain includes Justin Stangel , who took ninth overall in the men's pair last year at worlds along with former partner Tom Peszek (now slotted to race in London with Silas Stafford as the USA M2-), and former junior national champion with P...

On Friday last week, I wrote to Megan Kalmoe asking her a number of questions regarding the changes made to the US Rowing program. Despite her busy schedule, she took the time to write back with some clear answers. The information is summarized below: First, all selection regattas will continue to be held at Mercer Lake, West Windsor, NJ. US Rowing's view is that fewer athletes from US Rowing Training Centers will attend these regattas in the future -- boats will more commonly be selected via the camp system, prior to the NSRs. Given this, they will send only a limited amount of athletes to these events, to finalize selection. Regarding the separation of the men's heavyweight and lightweight teams, Kalmoe said that her feeling is that there is currently insufficient space to run two programs out of the Arco facility. Apparently, many of the heavyweight men will already have to seek offsite housing, as the their number exceeds that of the available residency spots. By making...

The upcoming changes regarding US Rowing's training programs and facilities, acknowledged last week following a meeting of the High Performance Committee, have yet to be explained in full by the governing body, nor has any official announcement been made regarding the release of former coach Kris Korzeniowski. The decisions regarding the movement of the men's heavyweight and lightweight teams marked a drastic break with the system in place for the last two decades, with Princeton as a focal point for the US National Team, and the new rationale seems to focus on regional, weight-class specific training centers. This much can be deduced from the text of the announcements -- but will the reasoning behind such massive changes be revealed? There are a number of questions that immediately come to mind regarding the movement of the men's squad(s). The first has to do with selection. Since the new training centers are both over 1, 400 miles from Princeton (Chula Vista is 2, 700 m...

Over the past few months and years we have seen a steady decline in the funding and support of 'non-revenue' men's athletics—or 'Olympic Sports' as Steve Gladstone called them while serving as Athletic Director at Cal. This process began with Title IX in 1990, and has recently picked up speed with a number of the state-funded schools experiencing financial setbacks due to the state of the economy. Just recently, we saw the latest victims here in the Bay Area fall to the economic pressures of rebuilding California and restructuring University of California finances, as the Cal Men's Baseball team was cut from the athletics department, along with the Men's Rugby team. Both were programs with a long history of success—the rugby squad was the most dominant such program in the United States, but when it comes time to cut spending, men's athletics are often the first item on the chopping block. In rowing, the few remaining varsity programs on the men's s...

The US men's squad emerges from the competition in Karapiro with very little to show for its efforts this year, though this does not do justice to the improvements that have been made over the past twelve months. The cold, hard fact is, this year's team did not take a single medal of any color home from Karapiro, failing one of the major criteria laid out as a basis for saying McLaren's program is working as we head toward London. Even in events that were not well subscribed (the 2+ and the LWT VIII), the US couldn't manage a podium finish, and of the boats that made A Finals (including final-only events, this amounted to four) the best finish by a US crew was 5th place. Now, as far as improvements go, there are a couple of things to talk about, most notably the 4-, which didn't even make the B final last year, and which finished in 5th place overall during this year's campaign. A great deal of work has gone into this boat, and the results show that a tremendous...

Just before the term began this Fall, Steve Gladstone and Joel Scrogin, the two coaches-in-residence at California Rowing Club in the wake of Tim McLaren's departure, took off for Yale. Why would Gladstone take the Yale job? That's the subject for an entirely separate debate. But where does all this leave CRC? Only two years ago, CRC was an elite sculling training center, much like Pocock has become in the Pacific Northwest, and under the guidance of Tim McLaren, athletes wanting to develop their talents in the post-collegiate rowing atmosphere of California (typically a wasteland when compared to the East Coast) finally had an opportunity to do more than just bash out 1,000 meter pieces in Masters VIIIs. The program was working very well, and produced an Olympic Men's 2x much earlier than originally planned, made up of former Cal oarsman Elliot Hovey and his counterpart Wes Piermarini. Then, in the wake of the Beijing Olympics, Mike Teti decided to take on a new role, as ...