RowingRelated

Close racing at the first World Rowing Cup (Photo courtesy of FISA/quattro media) This week's video comes to us from the beautiful shores of Lake Bled, Slovenia, and gives a hint of the atmosphere at the first of this year's World Rowing Cup regattas, as well as some insight into the starting-line rituals of several of the world's best rowers and scullers.

This film showcases a number of the most important coaches in our sport today during their athletic careers, including Paul Reedy , now LW2x coach with Team GB and chief coach of London Rowing Club, in the AUS M2x, Boston University head coach Thomas Bohrer in the USA M4-, and  Robin Williams , now Team GB LM4- coach, in the GB LM8+ (and, funny enough, his biography has been conflated with that of one of his athletes, LRC's Rob Williams , on the FISA website–scroll down to where the current LM4- stroke was, evidently, winning silver at age 3), as well as current Pac-12 rivals Yaz Farooq of Stanford and UCLA's Amy Fuller Kearney , both of whom were competing at their first senior world championships in the USA W8+. The footage is high quality, and includes a great deal of slow motion, providing a very thorough look at the technique employed, as well as serving to emphasize the raw power and dynamism of our sport. These world championships took place at an extremely pivotal p...

Having been fortunate enough to attend the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, I can say that Mike Nicholson  has done quite well here, capturing the sights and sounds around the race course, as well as catching up with a number of the top athletes on the outstanding Australian national team. Bled is, without question, one of the most picturesque rowing venues in the world, and the weather cooperated beautifully this year, making for good racing (and reporting) conditions. In case you missed it, or would like to relive it all once again, check out the coverage of the 2011 World Rowing Championships from the course on RowingNews.com ( opening ceremonies , and days one , two , three , four , five , six , seven and eight are a click away), with links to over 40 video interviews with athletes and coaches. After an extremely successful 2011 campaign, Team GB will be in action over the weekend , with national trials taking place in Boston, UK (the original version)....

Inside the FISA Press Centre Worlds are rolling, and it has been a great learning experience so far, not only from the standpoint of the rowing itself (certainly educational to see all the best athletes in our sport gathered in one place, all with the Olympics on the line), but also from the standpoint of writing and journalism. I've had the chance to meet and speak with a number of the top athletes in world rowing at this point, and I've been generally impressed by their open and friendly attitude -- I suppose it's something that ought to link everyone in the rowing community, as rowing is outside the mainstream, and not subjected to the same scrutiny that professional sports are. Still, conducting interviews isn't always the easiest thing, especially early in the week, as athletes are very concerned about qualification, and unwilling to be as candid as they might otherwise be, in most cases, because of it. And that, of course, is perfectly understandable. Ultima...