LAC AIGUEBELETTE, France - Ask any one of the women who rowed in the United States women's eight that won a 10th-consecutive world title Sunday what it takes to reach the top of the podium that many times in a row, and they will all say the same thing.
It's about the people who rowed in the crews before them. It's about the champions who have inspired them. It's about their teammates, the ones that made the team and are here at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France, and the ones who are back in Princeton at the USRowing Training Center.
It's never about one crew. And the U.S. crew of coxswain Katelin Snyder (Detroit, Mich.), Heidi Robbins (Hanover, N.H.), Tessa Gobbo (Chesterfield, N.H.), Kerry Simmonds (San Diego, Calif.), Emily Regan (Buffalo, N.Y.), Lauren Schmetterling (Moorestown, N.J.), Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y.) and Vicky Opitz (Middleton, Wis.) all agree.
"I think, at least for me, this is a product of (1976 Olympic bronze medalists) Carol Brown and Anita DeFrantz and Joan Van Blom, and everybody that came before us that made it possible for us to be here today," said coxswain Katelin Snyder, who has been in the boat the past three years.
"Every year is different," said Musnicki, who has won in the eight in five world championships and one Olympics. "And you don't really think about how many have come before or how many are going to come after.
"You just think about the moment you're in, what you can make of it. This group of women is exceptional from the people who didn't make the team this year, to everyone who raced here. We can't do it without them. To be honest, I don't think about (the streak)," she said. "If you do think about it, you can become obsessed with it, and you don't want to think about all that outside stuff."
The eight was one of three Olympic boat class crews that closed out the week-long regatta today. All three crews finished high enough overall to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
While medals are always a goal for the 26 crews that raced, the overall goal for the 14 Olympic-class boats was qualifying for the Olympics, something that happens in the third year of every Olympic cycle. The U.S. qualified 10 including the women's single sculls, women's double sculls, lightweight men's and women's double sculls, men's and women's pair, women's quadruple sculls, men's four, lightweight men's four and women's eight.
In addition, three para rowing crews qualified their boats for the Paralympic Games including the men's and women's arms and shoulders single sculls and the legs, trunk and arms four, which won silver in the event.
The U.S. did not qualify four of the men's boats, including the men's single sculls, men's double sculls, men's quadruple sculls and men's eight. For those boats to row in the Olympic Games, they will have to go through the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne next spring.
A total of seven medals were won at these world championships.
"Race to race, it was great," said head women's coach Tom Terhaar. "It was great. They raced so well. They raced incredibly well. It couldn't have been better. It was fantastic. When you show up here, qualification is number one and that's all you're really thinking about. But to have them raise up the level and race so well is fantastic."
Terhaar has been at the helm of the U.S. women's program since 2001. In just his second year, he coached the women's eight to a gold medal at the 2002 World Rowing Championships in Seville, Spain. It was the first gold medal for the U.S. in the women's eight since 1995.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics, his eight set a world record in the heat and won a silver medal in the final. It was the first time the U.S. had won an Olympic medal in the event since 1984. Terhaar's eights have changed from year to year, but no matter who has been in the boat the past 10 years, his crews have won at eight world championships and two Olympics - 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London.
"You don't think of it (as a streak)," Terhaar said. "You just think of it day to day, or week to week, or year to year. You just keep working and hoping that it works out."
From a medals, or finishing perspective, the women had an overall standout performance.
In the eight, the U.S. fought its way out of a tight pack that included New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, Russia and The Netherlands. Coming through the first five hundred meters, the U.S. was in second behind Great Britain. They gained the lead in the second quarter and never relented.
They won in 6:05.65. New Zealand was second in 6:08.65 and Canada was third in 6:09.05.
"Rowing is an offensive sport," said Tessa Gobbo, who joined the crew for the first time. "It's true. There's no defense. So we stayed in it, stayed in our heads, stayed in our race. It's pretty clear to make this ten years happen, you take it one year at a time." Besides the women's eight victory, the USTC - Princeton women's quadruple sculls crew of Olivia Coffey (Watkins Glen, N.Y.), Megan Kalmoe (St. Croix Falls, Wis.), Tracy Eisser (Fair Lawn, N.J.) and Amanda Elmore (West Lafayette, Ind.) won the first gold medal in the event for the U.S. on Saturday. The USTC - Princeton women's four crew of Grace Luczak (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Adrienne Martelli (University Place, Wash.), Grace Latz (Jackson, Mich.) and Kristine O'Brien (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) won gold and the women's USTC - Princeton pair of Eleanor Logan (Boothbay Harbor, Maine) and Felice Mueller (Cleveland, Ohio) took bronze.
Cambridge Boat Club's single sculler Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass.) reached her first world championship final and qualified her boat class for the Olympics. She was just one spot out of the medals, finishing fourth in 7:45.45. Australia's Kim Crow won in 7:38.92. Mirka Knapkova of Czech Repiblic was second in 7:41.88 and China's Jingli Duan was third in 7:43.21.
In the lightweight women's double, Vesper Boat Club's Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif.) and Devery Karz (Park City, Utah) finished fifth in their B final and qualified the boat class for the Olympics. Also qualifying on Sunday in the B final was the USTC - Oklahoma City women's double sculls crew of Ellen Tomek (Flushing, Mich.) and Meghan O'Leary (Baton Rouge, La.).
They finished fifth. A top eleven finish was required. Of the six Olympic class boats available for qualification for the women, they checked off all six.
"Obviously, the main goal here was to qualify and we got that done, barely, we finished eleventh," said Tomek. "It was a tough regatta. We knew the field would be tight and we needed to execute our races and have things go our way in order to get in the medals the way we wanted, and it didn't. All of our races were within two to three seconds from the winner. If it's that tight, you're going to have to have a really good race and we didn't and it was tough," she said.
"You live and learn," added O'Leary. "We've got some things to work on. We know we're a world-class boat. We've proven it at times. We didn't have it this week, but we're going to keep nailing away at it to make sure we have it next year," she said.
For the men, it was a different story. The USTC - Princeton men's eight of coxswain Zach Vlahos (Piedmont, Calif.), Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.), Tom Dethlefs (Lawrenceville, N.J.), Alex Karwoski (Hollis, N.H.), Austin Hack (Old Lyme, Conn.), Matt Miller (Fairfax, Va.), Sam Dommer (Folsom, Calif.), Mike Gennaro (Havertown, Pa.) and Grant James (DeKalb, Ill.) did not reach the final. They rowed in the B final Sunday and won, but they needed to finish in the top five this year and they did not qualify for the Olympics.
Of the eight men's Olympic-class boats, they qualified four.
The USTC - Princeton men's four of Seth Weil (Menlo Park, Calif.), Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.), Charlie Cole (New Canaan, Conn.) and Glenn Ochal (Philadelphia, Pa.) was burdened by illness, had to substitute out Cole for the semifinal, and did not reach the A final. They won their B final and qualified the boat class, but after winning silver in the event last year and gold in this spring's second world cup, the finish was a disappointment.
The lightweight men's double of Cambridge Boat Club's Joshua Konieczny (Millbury, Ohio) and Andrew Campbell, Jr. (New Canaan, Conn.) were also hampered by illness, but finished second in the B final and qualified.
The USTC - Oklahoma City lightweight four of William Daly (Vail, Colo.), Edward King (Ironton, Mo.), Tyler Nase (Phoenixville, Pa.) and Anthony Fahden (Lafayette, Calif.) also did not make the final, but won their B final and they qualified the boat for the Olympics.
"It's a bit of a shame that we didn't quite get everything together early in the regatta because we know that's how fast we are and that's the type of racers we are," said Daly. "But we ended on the high note and qualified for the Olympics. It could have been better but it ended well."
A bright spot for the USTC - Princeton men's crews was the men's pair of Tim Aghai (Skokie, Ill.) and Michael DiSanto (Boston, Mass.). They performed well all week and finished second in the B final and qualified their boat class.
Now the U.S. men will have to focus their efforts on preparing the eight for the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta next spring, where they will need a top two finish to gain a spot in the Rio Olympics.
But now, faced with the same situation, USRowing High Performance Director Curtis Jordan said the U.S. would do everything possible to see that there is a men's eight in Rio.
"I'm highly disappointed," Jordan said following the men's eight repechage. "I think, clearly, the men's eight is an event we are very proud of, and we're disappointed that they didn't get into the finals.
"But our goal is the Olympics, and we will do everything possible to bolster that boat," he said. "I have complete confidence in the athletes that we have. I have complete confidence in the coach that we have, and we will be doing everything possible to focus on that boat coming into the Olympic year and to make that a boat we can put on the podium."
Of the men's four finish, coach Bryan Volpenhein said he was pleased that the crew had won the B final and qualified, but disappointed they were not in the A final racing for medals.
"I was happy with the result," said coach Bryan Volpenhein. "They were able to come back and win that B final. There is a bit of satisfaction in that, but we still wish we were in the A, rowing for a medal. But, I think it's motivating for next year and I think it will keep us on our toes and keep us improving over the next year. The guys are good. They're happy, but they know they can get better," he said.
There were great moments and disappointments, but overall, Jordan was pleased with the way it was run and the promise it shows for next year.
"They did a great job running this regatta," he said. "It was a beautiful site to run it on, the water was very calm the whole time and the big key is, you could go through the regatta and not worry about the fairness of the lanes.
"Relative to what we did, clearly we had some disappointments. I think the real positive thing is the boats we did have disappointments in, we ended it on a high note. So I think we had a good degree of learning, both on our coaches and our athletes' part.
"Hopefully this sets us up well to be a more mature group when we arrive in Rio next year. For the boats that won medals, it was spectacular. From the women's pair to the women's eight, the whole program is a marker for Tom in that his system works.
"When the athletes do what he asks, they know they are going to be successful and the big example is the women's quad. That was the most courageous race I've seen in a long time and just set everybody up for a great finish today."