My stranglehold on the Canadian rowing blogosphere is becoming further tightened now that row2k asked me to write from the Canadian perspective at this year’s World Championships. Just for full disclosure’s sake though, when I say the “the Canadian perspective,” let’s be realistic, I will be writing from my subjective perspective. What does this mean for my fellow Canadian athletes? It means that I get to decide what the world thinks of them as rowers and moreover as people.
This opportunity is very humbling given that in the last couple months my own blog has become rather bland. Since Christmas I began to write more about my actual training and stopped focusing so completely on the humorous nuances of the Victoria Training Centre. Honestly, it’s a little obvious what training is like: wake up, row, eat, sleep, weights, row, eat, have a philosophical discussion with Conlin McCabe, sleep, repeat. However, with a newly rekindled focus and sense of purpose to my writing, I will aim to expose the Canadian rowers and their lives for the world to either love or hate.
For fellow Canadian rowers who happen to be reading this, there are ways to protect your image. For starters, you could be Scott Frandsen. As a fellow port side pair rower my respect for him is too high to even fathom the idea of saying anything remotely negative about him. In a completely different way you could be like Tim Myers, as one athlete aptly stated “ I would love to call out Tim on the water, but I know if I did he would burn me 1000 times over and worse ” (Tim is that fast and witty). If you don’t have either my upmost respect or are my roommate then here is a list of other things you can do to make sure you’re well represented.
1.If you have a first class upgrade for Air Canada and let me use it (given that through my own fault I forgot to claim all my aeroplan points for elite status last year), I will make my entire next post about you. Yes, this is a contest and together the two of us can both win.
2.Given that the dock at our pre worlds training site in Erba, Italy is rather small, if the lightweight four is launching/docking and you chose to relinquish your position for us, I would consider that a positive decision.
3.Also in Erba, if you are in line in front of me at the delicious buffet with all that fantastic cheese, relinquishing your position again would be another positive decision.
4.Women, just because you are in Corgeno instead of Erba does not mean you are safe. I have spies in Corgeno in the form of lightweights. If I hear of defending world champion Lindsay Jennerich receiving any wash during pieces, I will not be happy. Lightweights need to stick up for each other; we’re small people in a world of giants.
5.I’m sure I’ll come up with other things randomly, so be prepared.
Ok, all over the top dramatic seriousness aside, I hope to fulfill your interests in the Canadian perspective at the World Championships and lead up to. I will do my best to convey who we are, what we are setting out to accomplish, and how we go about completing our goals.
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