Tons of news from an epic, rainy day of racing on the Rotsee in Lucerne, so we'll dive right in.
No disrespect is intended towards the US Women, who captured four medals overall here today, including wins in the W8+ and W2-, but we're going to lead off with the US Men's 8+ today. Racing in a packed field that included the Olympic champs Germany, the World Champs GB, and three other top-flight, eights-rowing nations, the US Men worked aggressively and confidently through the body of the race, coming from 5th into 3rd, running in a threatening second place for a time, before crossing the line for a well-deserved bronze behind the Netherlands and Germany. On the evidence of this week, you'd have to say that the US Men's Eight is back.
"It came together this week, but it started eight months ago," said four-seat Glenn Ochal, 2012 bronze medalist in London in the USA M4- and somewhat of the "elder statesman" in the crew. "A lot of work went into the year, with the goal of this week. It was a great week of racing, we qualified the boat. We raced well here, obviously wanted to do a little better, but we know that we have two more months to go home and prepare. We know these crews are going to get quicker, so we need to get as quick as them, and more so if we want to win. I have a lot of faith in these guys, a lot of faith in our coaching, and our preparation. I can't be more excited."
Considering that the US Men spent the beginning of this week rowing for their proverbial Olympic lives, you'd not have been surprised if the relief of qualifying had resulted in a less competitive result in the World Cup event, but this group of athletes seems to function a little differently.
"Our whole focus had been getting ready for the qualifier, and the large amount of racing that we've had to do to be in that kind of mode," said coach Luke McGee. "We didn't really discuss the World Cup race, this was extra. This was a bonus for us, and that's what I told the guys, 'this is risk-free racing, just go to the line and get some experience.' I was a little nervous coming in, I didn't know how they would react physically and emotionally after the qualifier, I thought it could go one of two ways, but they did a nice job opening it up and having fun with it. There was so much pressure on the qualifier that they just hadn't had that much fun racing in a long time."
"When you have to go to something like the qualifier, you're a pretty close group," continued Ochal. "I've been rowing for 15 years, and the qualifier was the biggest race of my life, on Tuesday. You've got to trust in the guys, you've got to build that faith. This race helped us, every aspect of the racing helped. This has been a great week for us."
As the athletes and coaches both stressed, a bronze medal isn't the top of the podium just yet, but the way the medal was earned speaks volumes about what Luke McGee and the group have accomplished in a very short time, and gives rise to optimism enroute to Rio.
Perhaps characteristically, the crew was the first off the medals dock today; back to work!
The US women are more habitually accomplished of late, but this doesn't reduce the value of their wins, not by a long shot. Today, the US women showcased squad depth, skill and stamina, end stop. Grace Luczak and Felice Mueller led pillar to post for the win, ahead of NZ and the USA2 entry of Meg Musnicki and Elle Logan. Without taking anything away from the performance of the US pairs, this was a five-boat final--the favored GB combination of Glover/Stanning scratched early this morning.
Roughly six hours later, the four athletes who raced the pairs were joined by Emily Regan, Tessa Gobbo, Lauren Schmetterling and stroke Amanda Elmore, along with coxswain Katelin Snyder (who could he heard calling the sprint from across the lake with 250 meters to go), raced to a hard-fought, but clear win over the GB eight, who clearly have grand ambitions for Rio, and NZ. row2k caught up with Snyder after the eights final.
"It was a very internal race," said Snyder. "We did a really good job of just paying attention to the girl in front and trying to support our rhythm all the way down the course. As everyone knows it gets harder and harder to do when you're tired, and I think we did a really good job of executing our goal, which was to keep the rhythm all the way down."
Beyond coxing, Snyder has helped rig boats, delivered recovery food to her teammates on the dock after races; according to her, it's all part of the job. "All of it is my fun time," said Snyder. "When the pairs do well, when the quads do well, I am lucky I'm in a position where I feel like I have performed as well! The whole regatta, whether I am racing or not, is really satisfying. The thing about my team is that they have really made me the athlete that I am."
US Women's head coach Tom Terhaar reflected on the weekend's performances in a characteristically understated way. "We got a lot of good racing experience, and all the boats performed 'up,'" said Terhaar. "They did a really nice job."
From the team boats, it's on an outstanding individual performance, Gevvie Stone's outstanding silver medal in the Women's Single. As we've said here, Stone has been on point this weekend, and rewarded herself with a medal and a great race to earn it, to boot. As a class field of other scullers ran with the pace of the undisputed leader, Australia's Kim Brennan, Stone stayed in touch through the body of the race, then unleashed a powerful closing sprint to put herself on the podium with Brennan and Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic; not bad company to be on the awards float with, as Brennan and Knapkova finished in that order at Worlds this past year.
Stone herself was little surprised with how she finished. "I came into this regatta totally clueless about my speed," said Stone. I’d be talking to [Olaf] Tufte, or Mahe Drysdale, and they'd ask 'how are you going?' and I would say, 'I honestly have no clue. I train on a river with masters men.' I came in with no idea, but the heat race was a really pleasant surprise, the semi was great, and today was a great end to a great week."
"I've been really lucky as a rower in general," continued Stone. "Since I started rowing, I've managed to get faster the more I work. When I'm training, I've managed to gain speed every year, whether that was rowing fours in high school, the eight in college, or the single now. The more I row the faster I get."
Stone was quick to credit her training partners for helping her to tap into her speed. "I've really benefitted from training with people, so this year we schedule my training so that I would have people to work with to get the most out of myself. I was with the Vesper group in Austin for three months, and then with the Irish team in Spain for two weeks, that was a really helpful check on where I was in speed internationally."
Other US crews in the finals today included the Men's Four, who finished fourth today behind the GB, Australia and the Netherlands. For Men's Four coach Bryan Volpenhein, the crew's finish was about ballpark.
"It's about where we wanted to be," said Volpenhein, who, like most other coaches, didn't want to read too much into today's result. "It wasn't our best race, but I think we've done a good body of work at home as far as our training goes. You have to have an honest assessment of what you've done and where you're at. Then you can look at the result, and try to evaluate how that all stacks up, but also making sure that you've got room to improve. You have to hold yourself to a high standard. We know we're not happy with this, but that leaves us hungry and we're ready to get to work."
The difference in this race for the gold medal came down to an unfortunately-timed crab in the AUS crew, just two strokes from the line; see the full sequence starting here.
In case you missed it: the Netherlands were the only country to medal in every Men's sweep events here today, winning the eight, and medaling in the four and the pair.
The Men's Lightweight Double of Andrew Campbell and Josh Konieczny and the USA2 Women's Quad of Liv Coffey, Emily Huelskamp, Amanda Polk and Grace Latz both finished sixth in their finals today.
Only one US crew raced in the B-finals today; the Men's Double of Willie Cowles and Stephen Whelpley finished sixth in the petites, or 12th overall.
As the tents in the Rotsee park were taken down, boats were stowed, and the athletes and coaches dispersed from Lucerne (tho'not before stopping in at the Pickwick), there was a palpable sense of countdown. The Olympic heats start in Rio at 8:30am on Saturday, August 6th; best of luck to all the athletes and the coaches with final selection, trials, preparations, adjustments and fine tuning as the rowing world collectively sets its sights on Rio.
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