RowingRelated

Cooling down after the heat (Photo: B. Kitch) Following the Games in London, two-time Olympian David Banks of the 2012 U.S. men's eight was kind enough to share his thoughts on this year's team, the racing in Lucerne and Eton, and just what it means to compete at the Olympics. Having begun his rowing career at Stanford, Banks has been involved with the U.S. national team since 2008, where he has consistently been lauded by his peers as the ideal teammate–positive, hard-working, and without complaint–and possesses one of the best power-to-weight ratios on the squad. For now, Banks is reflecting on London, but hasn't ruled out Rio. RR: From the outside, everything I've heard about the athletes in the men's eight is that it was an outstanding group, really supportive of one another–blue-collar, hard workers. How were the team dynamics? David Banks: This group was an amazing group to be apart of and to work with. All nine guys in the boat but also everyone in th...

Our Video Of The Week this week is Natalie Dell's fantastic, behind-the-scenes look at what it was like to be an athlete at the 2012 Olympic Games, following her bronze medal performance in the U.S. women's quad (along with Megan Kalmoe, Adrienne Martelli, and Kara Kohler). Not only does the above video give the outside world a peek at what some might call the 'glamorous side' of an Olympic athlete's experience, it also shows Dell's understanding of and appreciation for the opportunities before her. Dell began rowing as a club athlete at Penn State, before earning her stripes in sculling and breaking into the senior national team in 2010, when she took fifth in the quad in Karapiro. Since then, Dell has been on the podium at both the 2011 world championships in Bled (silver) and in Eton Dorney. You can learn more about Natalie on the Facebook fan page dedicated to her. Want to suggest the next 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated...

Ever since the boats were selected for the 2011 World Rowing Championships, there has been controversy surrounding the U.S. men's rowing team. We published an article in August  (prior to Worlds), asking questions about the nature of selection, which seemed to be producing inconsistent results within the team from year to year, and which hasn't, during the McLaren era, produced many notable results internationally, despite the talent within the U.S. system. The article sparked a discussion that continued through the World Championships, and things didn't settle down following the performance of the U.S. men in Bled – in fact, things have heated up across the board. After coming back from Worlds, I headed over to CRC to meet the newly appointed head coach, Bernhard Stomporowski, who comes from the German system, and whom Mike Teti greatly respects as a coach. Following the interview and tour of the facilities that I put together for Rowing News , there was some speculati...

The Thames has been the 'centre' of attention of late, but more for what's been going on in the water than on it. David Walliams completed an amazing 140 swim down the Thames, and raising roughly £1 million for charity in the process. Sir Steve Redgrave was in attendance for the celebration along the banks of the river, and, unlucky for him, the boys from Imperial College Boat Club caught up with him during the festivities (see above). More on David Walliams' feat from The Guardian . In other news, the 2011 E.ON Hanse Canal Cup took place over the weekend, and saw four international crews taking part in the 12.7k race in Rendsburg, Germany. Crews from the Dutch , Australian , German and USA rowing federations raced over the lengthy course on the Kiel Canal, with many of the same athletes from the recent World Rowing Championships taking part in the competition. The USA men's eight featured seven of the eight that placed eighth in Bled, with the one switch be...

The US U23 squad had a very successful regatta over the weekend, with fast conditions paving the way for a huge number of new world best times on the Bosbaan. As has come to be expected, the women's squad was both deep and strong, with the pair of Grace Luczak (bronze medalist in Karapiro) and Felice Mueller (gold medal and world best time from last year's U23 World Championships) winning and breaking last year's record by roughly nine seconds, then jumping into the eight and taking bronze. The men's team also had several strong performances, and came away with two medals of their own, in the lightweight single and the eight. Andrew Campbell , who took bronze in the LM1x (backing up a bronze in the M1x at last year's Junior World Championships), is making quite a name for himself on the lightweight circuit. And, yet again, Mike Teti has coached a record-breaking eight that took home the gold from a World Championship regatta. Let's talk about that last poin...

(Photo courtesy of USRowing) While you may be familiar with Megan Kalmoe from her successes at UW, where she was an All-American, or from the 2005 U23 World Championships, where she took home the gold medal in the W4-, or from her fifth place finish in Beijing in the W2x, you might not know how much more there is to Megan than meets the eye. In addition to her rowing and training, Megan takes the time to be creative, and has a strong grasp of the sacrifices that she needs to make for her training, both physically and psychologically. Here, Megan catches up with RR about her beginnings in the sport, her experiences rising through the ranks, elation and disappointment in Beijing, and what motivates her as she continues to strive toward further success in London. RR: How did you get started in the sport? Do you feel that your multi-sport background from high school helped you to develop more quickly as a rower? When did you realize that you could take the sport to the next level? M...

The Wall Street Journal got involved in the debate surrounding the US National Team this week, publishing an article that is the first appearance to date of any reasoning behind the moves as expressed by Glenn Merry himself. The rationale, according to Merry, is directly related to training -- the warmer climate in California allows year round training on the water, and, given the US men's failure to bring home any hardware from Karapiro in November, the US Rowing leadership decided that the move would facilitate rapid improvement in small boat categories. The results from the RR short answer poll show that the move is a divisive issue: 38% believed the move was a bad decision, while 32% backed the move to California and 28% remained undecided. While I believe this is the right move in the long-term, there are a number of problems yet to be addressed in the wake of such a dramatic shift, and only 20 months left to resolve them. First, let's look at the benefits of the move f...

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...

Yesterday, I published an article regarding the changes taking place with US Rowing. After reflecting upon it, I later decided that it was too early to form a strong opinion about the moves, given that so little of the background information has been released. I do, however, feel that it is important to acknowledge the changes taking place, as they have a great effect on the athletes training for London. Up to this point, the most informative article is posted to megankalmoe.com , as she sits on the HPC (High Performance Committee) as an athlete representative. From her position, she has access to the information behind the scenes, and being that she is there as an athlete representative, presumably she has a sense for how her fellow athletes are handling the situation. Overall, she describes the feeling coming out of the meetings as positive. The facts are as follows: The men's heavyweight program will move to the Arco Training Center in Chula Vista, CA, under the direction of...

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...

The performance of the day for the US men's team was turned in by the 4-, led by Silas Stafford of Stanford. The crew placed themselves firmly in medal contention with a solid performance, holding off a late sprint from the Italian crew immediately to starboard. It's a great sign moving forward and exactly the type of performance needed to set the tone as we draw closer to London. Stafford, Stitt, Rummel and Lanzone also make up the first of the US men's Olympic-class boats to make the the A Final this year -- something that is extremely important for Tim McLaren as he tries to harness the potential of the US club system in preparation for 2012 (as I've discussed ). Tomorrow will feature a very tough race for the Men's LWT 4-, in a heat with Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and France -- all perennial powerhouses in the event. If the US can make it through to the A Final from this semi, they too will have placed themselves in medal contention, having raced some of t...

The US men's team has opened up very well across the board thus far in Karapiro, with the LM4- making a big statement in their heat, finishing second and going straight to the A/B semi. The LM 2- finished third in their heat (behind quality entries from NZ and France), and will be heading to the reps, as will the M4-, stroked by Silas Stafford, who also opened up very well, finishing 2nd behind an excellent NZ crew. In the 2-, Monaghan and McEachern took 3rd, placing themselves in semifinal A/B in one of the toughest events at the regatta, and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg did just enough to take the 3rd qualifying position in the LM1x as well, landing himself in the A/B semi. The 2x combination of Anderson and Ochal competed very well in their opener, taking 2nd behind another quality entry from Great Britain. They'll now set their sights on the A/B semi along with many of their teammates. The toughest result for the US to this point has come in the M1x, with Ken Jurkowski coming acr...

As the US men take to the water in Karapiro, the looming questions about current Head Coach Tim McLaren are: can he have the same success in the US 'system' (really a euphemism for a random selection of clubs and athletes all over the country who come together, usually at the last minute, and are thrown into lineups largely based on erg scores) that he had in the much more structured Australian one? Can he impose that same kind of structure on the truly amateur sport in the US? How will the US Team fair in the second year of his coaching regime? What are acceptable results? Last year's performance at the World Championships did not make a sterling impression on his adopted home, as none of the camp boats medaled -- in fact, the only boats that took home any hardware at all were the victorious Coxed Pair (Henrik Rummel and Troy Kepper), and the second-place Lightweight VIII. Neither is an Olympic event, and the Lightweight VIII had only 9 entries (though, to be fair, it'...

It's just over a week until the Head of the Charles, and looking through the entries, there are very many events that are wide open this year with Worlds being held down in Karapiro. That said, there are a few events where the front-runners seem clear. Let's take a look. In the Champ Single , the only appearance from the international scene (this year, anyway) is Marcel Hacker, who won't be racing at Worlds due to his recovery period from an injury. Though typically that might put him at the top of the heap, I don't know what kind of form he is in coming back from injury (broken rib), and he can be very unpredictable even when healthy. For these reasons, Jamie Koven is my pick to win the Champ 1x. Hacker is more than capable of winning, depending on the day and his condition, so I would certainly expect him to be in the top 10, along with Mike Perry (Dolphin Club, San Francisco), Michael Sivigny, Geoffrey Hoffman, Jens Robatzek, and possibly Donny Simkin. I'm not f...

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 ...