INDIANAPOLIS -- Xeno Müller, the mens single sculler who won two Olympic rowing medals while competing for Switzerland, has received permission to compete for the United States, USRowing announced Friday.
Müller, a Brown University graduate who has lived in the United States since 1992, became a U.S. citizen earlier this year and recently received permission from Swiss Rowing and the Swiss Olympic Association to compete for the United States. Müller is now eligible to race at next weeks National Selection Regatta I and, pending his performance there, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Rowing scheduled for May 18-23 in West Windsor, N.J. If Müller wins the trials, he will then need to finish in the top two at the Olympic Qualification Regatta in order to qualify to compete at the Olympic Games. The U.S. failed to finish in the top 11 in the mens single sculls at last years world championships, necessitating the U.S. trials winner to race at the qualifier. The regatta will be held June 13-16 in, ironically, Lucerne, Switzerland.
The two-time Swiss Olympian won the gold medal in the single sculls at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and followed that up with a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. He also has won three world championships medals in the single sculls. Müller has been training full time since September of 2003 after retiring from international competition during the Swiss National Championships in 2002. He will be attempting to become the first U.S. Olympic medalist in the event since 1956 and the first U.S. Olympic gold medalist in the event since Jack Kelly in 1920.