RowingRelated

Early morning training at California Rowing Club (Photo: B. Kitch) The final boats for this year's U.S. world championships team have been named, following trials on Wednesday in Princeton. And, we've got to say, we don't understand the logic behind the selection procedures for the men’s quad.

The VOTW this week is a guided tour of the Devon Boathouse in Oklahoma City with 2010 US National Team member and two-time Cambridge Blue Ryan Monaghan , who is currently training with the High Performance group at the facility. The Devon Boathouse was designed by renowned architect Rand Elliott, who gave the building its distinctive shape and lighting in order to evoke the bow of a boat cutting through the water. The training facilities, which are shared by the OKC U.S. National High Performance Rowing and Canoe/Kayak teams, as well as the varsity programs at Oklahoma City University, are extensive and well-maintained, as the video will show. For more on the Devon Boathouse, check out the official website of OKC Riversport , and see the online coverage of the Oklahoma Regatta Festival on RowingNews.com , with further photos and video interviews from the event ( Thursday , Friday , Saturday , Sunday ) that included the annual OGE NightSprints (500m racing under the lights at night o...

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...