The last event of the Olympic trials process begins Sunday on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. U.S. Olympic Team Trials II - Rowing will determine which crew will represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the men's pair event, pending USOC approval.
This is the final determining event of Olympic selection and precedes the naming of the crews from the USRowing selection camps and the announcement of the full roster next week.
"We have a very competitive field of entries for the men's pair," said USRowing Director of High Performance Curtis Jordan. "It should be exciting racing for this final trial boat to be named to the team."
Eleven crews from five organizations are entered. Among them are 18 athletes with senior national team experience, five of which are Olympians in Will Daly (Vail, Colo.), Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio), Grant James (DeKalb, Ill.) Ross James (DeKalb, Ill.) and Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.).
Graves rowed in the men's quad that finished 13th at the 2012 London Olympics, Ross and Grant James were in the eight that finished fourth and Peszek was in the pair and finished eighth. Daly rowed in the lightweight men's four that finished 11th at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Five of the crews are comprised of athletes from the USRowing Training Center - Princeton including Tom Dethlefs (Lawrenceville, N.J.) and Daly; Grant and Ross James; Mike Gennaro (Havertown, Pa.) and Dariush Aghai (Skokie, Ill.); Nareg Guregian (North Hills, Calif.) and Anders Weiss (Barrington, R.I.); Ambrose Puttmann (Cincinnati, Ohio) and David Eick (Philadelphia, Pa.).
Also competing are Craftsbury Sculling Center's Peter Graves and John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio); Parker Washburn (Andover, Mass.) and Andrew Reed (Wayland, Mass.); Ian Silveira (West Bloomfield, Mich.) and Benjamin Dann (Pound Ridge, N.J.); Cambridge University Boat Club's Henry Hoffstot (Ligonier, Pa.) and Ben Ruble (Minneapolis, Minn.); California Rowing Club's Ryan Shelton (Wrightwood, Calif.) and Paul Marcy (Guilford, Vt.); Peszek and Yohann Rigogne (Besançon, France).
Racing begins Sunday evening with a time trial. The final is scheduled for Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. EST.