row2k Features
Interview
Canada's Kevin Light: Part I
January 11, 2011
Erik Dresser, row2k.com

Kevin Light

This week's interview is a multi-part feature with Canada's Kevin Light. Light was a member of the Canadian men's eight from 2002 to 2008. In today's feature, row2k chats with Kevin about his Athens experience.

Read Part II here.

row2k: You were in the Canadian eight that won the World Champs in '02 and '03, what were the strengths of that crew and how did the crew's final preparations for Athens go?
Kevin Light: The strengths of the 2002, 2003, and 2004 crews were aggressive training and racing behavior. The members of the eight from those years were very passionate people and we put a lot of that emotion into our training and our racing. It was Mike Spracklen's first years in Canada and all we really knew about him was that he coached the 1992 eight to gold in Barcelona, so whatever he told us to do we did without question or hesitation. We developed a confidence in each other by the intensity we put into our training and our expecting to win every time we raced was based on the attitudes that we developed in ourselves during training. We were not the tallest, biggest, or strongest but we pushed each other very hard each day and that was led by my future brother-in-law Andrew Hoskins.

There was a lot of yelling and cursing between athletes, and between Mike and the athletes, some of which was pretty nasty but it was never personal and all in the name of raising the game. There was 100 times more yelling during those three years than all of the years that followed. We were very motivated and accomplished a lot for a group of young inexperienced rowers. Look up the ages of the Seville crew and the oldest was probably 26 or 27 and the heaviest was maybe 205 pounds. Kyle Hamilton and Ben Rutledge who did not join the crew until May of that year had never won a race until we won Henley and the World Championships a few months later.

Our other strength was our start and shift into rhythm. We were a very light crew averaging 195 pounds with average 6km erg scores around 19:20, with our fastest being just over 19 minutes and the slowest being me at 19:27. The fastest 6km score from Athens would have been the slowest score from the Beijing crew also being me at 19:07. The start was something we practiced a lot and were very good at. The Athens crew was technically the best crew I have ever rowed in and that helped us start quickly and efficiently. We had stored up so much anger from all the training we had done; we would almost be insulted when there was ever a crew next to us that thought they could beat us.

It reminded me of how Mike Tyson used to fight. The start gave us an advantage, but it was Jeff Powell's sting and float rhythm that got us through the rest staying ahead of the other of the crews. We rowed Lucerne sometimes hitting rates of 33-34, but rowing long powerful strokes we were able keep doing it over and over staying ahead of stronger crews because of the rest we had on the recovery. Jeff was meticulous for rhythm and would not stand for anything less than a perfect stroke and brought us all to another level of technical expectation. He was not always the most pleasant guy to row with and he had some problems of his own, as everyone does, but he helped me understand what it meant to really concentrate and that you should expect greatness out of yourself.

The crew had a desire to be the best and if that meant extra kilometers after the workout to get it right, we would do it and nobody would complain. We had one workout in Banyoles during the training camp before Seville where we rowed a 90 minute practice that finished with starts with Mike. Then we kept doing more and more starts even after he said to go in. We did more and more until everyone knew we had got it right. It took about an extra hour making the whole row over three hours, we missed dinner and walked back to the hostel in the dark but that was how our crew was able to beat bigger and stronger crews. The biggest strength of those crews was small guys who beat each other up verbally and physically in practice and when it came to form the eight for the summer nothing was more important than the crew and spending as long as took to get it right.

row2k: Coming into the heat at Athens, the eight was favored for gold but ended up finishing a close second to the USA. How did that race go and how did it affect your crews confidence heading to the repechage?
Kevin Light: The heat in Athens was going awesome until the 1250m mark when the US team made their move. I thought, "Wow, the Olympics are just like every other race we have done; get out in front and row to the finish without much push from another crew." That was especially true in any heat we had done. I didn't understand that a heat in an Olympics requires just as much if not more intensity and focus than a final in World Championships. I remember Brian calling for the 2 man, and then next thing I knew he was calling that he was on the seven man. We ended up getting beat by a crew that wanted it more than we did that day. That race rattled us because that had never happened to us before. Had it been a straight time trial race we would have posted a faster time than we did and possibly even beaten the Americans.

The U.S. had not boated their top eight in Lucerne finishing, fourth and maybe we took that result a bit for granted. I'm sure the Canadian four and British four were pleased to see the U.S. four move into the eight. We should have been more aware of the quality of the American oarsmen that moved into their eight. We were young and I didn't give the competition the respect they deserved. I did not know the history of the 2000 U.S. eight and how several of those same guys rowing the eight in Athens also rowed the Sydney eight that finished 5th after winning the worlds three times. Having gone through the same type of circumstances in Athens and Beijing, that type of failure provides an athlete with a huge amount of motivation to dig deeper than they thought possible into the depth of human capacity. I think that is how the U.S was able to make that type of move with 750m to go to beat us in the heat and then go onto to beat us again in the final.

Had we been in different heats and met in the final I think you would have seen the race you saw in the heat. We were a good enough crew that the rep did not pose that much of a problem to advance but I think it did affect our confidence and the way we could prepare for the final. In the final we got beat by a more determined crew and having the start we did we would have had to have been a really experienced and confident crew to stick to rowing proper rhythm after falling a length down after 1000m. I'm proud of the fact that no one from the crew blamed each other or the coach for the Athens result. We stuck together and showed that the bonds that are created through the physical and mental pain that we put each other through in the training to give ourselves a chance to win in Athens are stronger than the effect of losing the Olympics.

row2k: There was a rumor that stroke seat Jeff Powell got injured at some point during Athens, is that true?
Kevin Light: Jeff Powell did hurt his shoulder in the rep. I did not ask him about it and the team never talked about it. We all had injuries and we just dealt with them. He had to wear pink tape for the final. I have never talked to him about his injury but I'm sure if you ask any guy from the U.S. eight, they could have told you about one guy or more guys who were rowing with an injury. Everyone has injuries and you just have to accept them and move on. It is never good to concentrate on how hurt your teammates are; that only makes it worse. I don't think it effected the team’s performance in the final, but Jeff may tell you otherwise as I don't know how hurt he was.

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