The US women's double of Meghan O'Leary in bow and Ellen Tomek at stroke had a nice race going in the Saturday heats before two boat-stopping crabs ended their bid to advance directly to the semifinals. In today's repechage, the crew raced in fourth place for much of the race before vaulting toward the front of the field in the second thousand, just barely failing to overtake the German crew at the finish line, finishing 0.06 out of first, and advancing to the semis in the offing. Here is what they had to say after the race.
After yesterday's row, you could see that you were frustrated and you had stuff to work on, and apparently that all got worked out. O'Leary: Any crew's going to come into the Olympic games and feel like they want to be able to perform at the best of their ability, and we feel like that wasn't our day for the heats. We weren't able to put together the race that we know that we're capable of. We let the conditions be too much of a factor for us. We had some bad luck, but we just kind of let it play into how we were handling the race.
Today was different. We saw what we did wrong and we made some adjustments, and just went out there and knew what we had to do, and luckily, we did it. We put together a much better race we're proud of and we know that we need to step it up even more tomorrow to finish in the top three of the semi.
Watching the race, you were in fourth, and then the next time I looked, you were in a better position. Is that typically the way you guys race?
I don't think we mean to race that way. We've worked on our start, and we had a really good start in the heat. We were up with Poland. Today was not as great of a start, but we know that the type of crew that we are, I wasn't fazed. I wasn't worried. We've had some really good races where we've come from behind- Varese, Aiguebelette. Some of our best races have been that way. We know that we have the capability to put together great middle thousand, or second thousand. Not that we're relying on that; we just know we're capable of it. So we know that tomorrow, you've got to put four 500s together. You can't rely on just one part of the race.
Ellen, when you were on the starting line, was there any banter back and forth between you, in terms of, look, we've got to get this done. Or did you work all that out beforehand?
Tomek: Yeah, we've been talking about that all year, really, and as Meghan said, we had to make some improvements from the heat, handle the conditions a little better, and focus on a few more technical aspects of the race. And once we've launched, it's heads down, get to work.
We have a pretty good relationship in the boat where a lot of it we don't need to talk. We know what we need to do and we do it and a lot of our moves are that way, too. She just knows when I'm going to go. I know when it's time to go from how she's driving the boat, and that's kind of our relationship in the boat.
So you sit at the start line, you're focused on the first stroke coming off cleanly, and you're taking it one stroke at a time. And we both know that that's the goal, and so we don't need to talk about it that much.
What did she say in your ear when you crossed the line? I know she had something to say.
Ellen: I think it was just a good job, you know. It was actually a really fun race, to come back like that, and we're good friends with the German double and they gave us a good race, and it's fun to banter with them at the end after that.
What did they have to say?
O'Leary: We've traded places with them over the past several years. Their crew has changed a couple times, but we always seemed to sometimes trade places with them. We've just developed a very good relationship with them. We respect them as athletes and we feel they respect us as athletes, which makes this event nice. You cross the line and you know that they gave us a good race, we gave them a good race, and it's what makes the difference.
Did they comment on seeing you guys coming? Did they say anything about it?
Tomek: We said something like, "Oh, maybe next time," and they said, "No way." So, I think we have them in our semi tomorrow, too.
O'Leary: Yeah, we see them tomorrow.
Tomek: We know it's going to be another good race from them and from the other four crews as well, so we're ready to go six boats across, laying it down. You know, it's a 2,000 meter race, so we might've been down off the start, but we know that you have what you have over 2,000 meters, and wherever you want to lay it down, that's fine. If you want to do it all in the first 250, that's fine, but you're going to pay for it later.
We like to be patient, make sure that we get into a good rhythm. It's going to have to be a little more aggressive tomorrow but, again, it's still 2,000 meters and it doesn't matter where you put your nose in front, as long as you cross with your bow ball in front at the finish line.
Was it a concentrated effort to work that second thousand, or do you just kind of start feeling it and that's when you moved ahead?
O'Leary: We didn't have the second 500 that we knew that we could have. Getting into base was a little rougher than it was yesterday - two days ago. [Laughs] But crossing into the thousand, I just felt as we came together, it smoothed out, and we handled the conditions better than the boats next to us, and we sort of just turned it on. We spent so much time in the boat that once we synced up it was there and we took off. So, we're looking to make that happen a little sooner.
You mentioned that you had some adjustments that you knew you needed to make. I know the conditions were vastly different, but what did you discuss that you knew you could do better?
Tomek: It was kind of funny. Sarah Trowbridge, our other coach that's back at home, she was sending short video clips of the heat. We weren't able to watch it here. And so, she was sending clips to look at your shoulders here, look at your chest dipping here.
O'Leary: Blade depths.
Tomek: Look at the blade depth. Look at what the Polish boat did well. Look what you're doing. See the difference. Okay, how can we make this happen? And then also watching world video of ourselves, like where we did execute it well. You know, in the heat we caught a crab. It stopped our boat, but why did we catch a crab and no one else did? And that's where we focused, and today we handled it better and hopefully we can handle it again tomorrow.
So, what did the coach here onsite have to say?
We came to the dock and he was obviously excited and said, yeah, just great job. That second thousand you could see obviously from this vantage point. Proud of the effort and, as I said, gotta step it up even more tomorrow.
It has to be hard for Sarah back at home.
O'Leary: Sarah has been great. We Skype with her every night.
Tomek: We've been doing the double the last four years, but a huge difference this year was having Sarah. She's been there before in the double. She's trained at that level. She my teammate at Michigan, my teammate on the national team, and the three of us just have such a great working relationship. Communication is so open. It's been so helpful for us, and it's been a huge confidence booster having her on our team.
O'Leary: She's definitely brought out the best in us this year.
Your faces are so calm as the engine was really picking up speed in the last part. Do you think about it as a focus -- I'm going to put all my energy into my muscles? Or that's just how you guys are?
Tomek: It's something I've actually been working on. I've had some really good ugly race faces in the past, and it is a waste of energy when you're using your neck to try and propel the boat. But yeah, she's been honest about a lot of things this year. Sometimes she drives the launch in front of us and is screaming, "You better handle the wake!" She's been preparing us for pretty much every scenario and relaxation is one of them, because if you're wasting energy and you're facing your neck, it's not going any place.
O'Leary: If you can do it well and make it look easy, you're doing something right (laughs).
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