June 23 - When "participatory journalist" Katie Couric visited the Princeton Training Center to take a shot at coxing the United States men's eight for an NBC spot to be aired during the Olympics, it fell to coxswain Pete Cipollone to take the reins. Cip welcomed Couric and instructed her in the finer points of coxing, including how to steer, how to hold yourself solidly in the boat, and yes, how to, well, "motivate" your oarsmen with some carefully selected locutions. (Okay, he told her when to curse.)

Once she was sufficiently prepared by Cip, Couric met her crew, the 1999 gold medal eight, with Phil Henry sitting in for Chris Ahrens. The highlight: Couric and 4-seat Tom Welsh exchanged corny jokes, with Couric starting the jokes, and Welsh finishing them. (Sample: Guy sites down in a bar, asks for some peanuts. Bartender gives him peanuts, and before he eats them the peanut says "Hey, nice shirt." Guy goes to eat another, and another peanut says "You're looking good today." Guy asks the bartender what's going on with the peanuts. "They're complimentary.")

Having met the crew, it was time to meet Coach Teti. Addressing her as "mini-Cip" (actually, she might have a centimeter or so on Cip), Teti gave Couric the workout and sent the crews out. Couric and Cip carried the oars down as the crew put the boat in the water.

We didn't get to follow the crew too closely, but Couric performed admirably, almost like a natural, barking calls that could be heard across the water as she took her crew through the paces for a five-mile row complete with 10s and 20s at full speed, some blasters with stroke rates in the upper 40s, and a sequence of perfectly balanced pause-on-the-gunwale drills.

After a boathouse flyby or two for the benefit of the cameras, Couric brought her crew home with a perfect docking job.

Of course, no successful row would be complete without dunking the TV anchor-cum-coxswain, and the boys obliged, with several of them ending up in the water in the act.

After the dunking, Couric asked Coach Teti if he could make sure that all of these guys made the Olympic team, a comment for which she was immediately hugged by Phil Henry.

Of course, the real event comes in the highlight show replay; here's the crew checking out the dunking in the boom replay monitor.

Before going back to her real life as a television star, Couric got together for a few photos with her crew, coaches, and the entire production crew. Apparently, when asked some months ago what sport she'd like to try for the Olympics, Couric did not hesitate in choosing the coxswain's seat of an eight. No wonder that she looks pretty comfortable here!

But sometimes the star doesn't always get the best seat in the house. Not to be upstaged, Couric's intern, a rower at Amherst College, took a spin in the bow seat of the men's eight, and performed admirably. In fact, it looked like she might be pulling the boat around - watch out Volp!