The US wrestling team arrived at the Wall about the same time. Looking at these pugilists- as a whole, one big group- you can't help but appreciate our sport. Wrestler ears, wrestler hunched posture, wrestler flattened noses, the team, taken together, were a living incarnation of those Russian nesting dolls - some of these guys were big, some were pretty small in stature - they all looked broken, confused, tough.

The Wall is situated on the ridge of low mountain range- a good defensive strategy; with guard towers every quarter mile or so. How many granite quarries were emptied to build these things? It must have been a pretty grim business if you were conscripted to build Northern Wall 19A, Sub-section C-0989, parapet 243444-1. You get paid in rice (only what you can eat) with 2 days off a year. Start digging. And now, six hundred years later, a gondola has been added to get you up to the wall, complimented with a toboggan ride to get you down. And nine hundred stalls have been added near the parking lot to aid in the acquisition of stuff. The stalls add some much needed color if nothing else.

Everyone perspires while walking along the Wall, even the President... Clinton, that is, a photo of him sweating like a big dog from the effort. The semi-finals are often the best racing. The math is simple: finish in the top 3, go to the finals. Finish 4th, 5th, or 6th, put your boat away and go to the nearest bar. (Luckily the beer here is cheap, plentiful and pretty good... it's no Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but that's to be expected.)

The US single sculler, Michelle Guerette, led her semi from the 500 to the 1500 meter mark; then she geared down and cruised to a second place finish. Two things of interest: when Xiuyun Zhang, from China, passed Michelle with 250 meters to go, the crowd went absolutely crazy. I can't wait for the finals.

Also of interest, Michelle's technique is utterly unique, unconventional, unorthodox, and it works. Therein lies the beauty of the single scull. Matching up with a teammate is never an issue.

The single can be pretty unforgiving, too. Olympic bronze medalist from 2000, Marcel Hacker, trains in Newport Beach, California for much of the winter. Hacker has a full-time, top notch professional coach. Hacker is 100% state sponsor supported and he does nothing but train day in, day out; he has the best equipment money can buy, plus a wealth of racing experience at every level. And he finished 4th. In the next semi, the current Olympic champion, Mahe Drysdale, came within about a stroke of finishing 4th to the sculler from Greece. Ken Jurkowski of the US finished 5th, six seconds out of qualifying.