In just a short couple of weeks, Liam Corrigan will compete in his second Olympic Games, racing in the USA M4-. Read his original row2k Starting Five post from the Tokyo Games here.
How have you prepared differently for this quadrennial than previous cycles?
I may not be able to go into too much detail here, at least before the Olympics, but suffice to say, we have taken a much more professional approach than in previous cycles. Really, we're looking to optimize everything that we do on the margin whether it's training program, weights, nutrition, supplements, rigging, oars, boat lineup, etc. Every one of these things we test and track and use the results of blood tests, V02 max tests, telemetry, and of course raw boat speed to inform our decision making. As a nice example of this, I'm writing this note from inside an altitude chamber that we have been using for the last few weeks.
Did anything completely unexpected happen, or do you have any memorable or unusual stories from this Olympiad?
Certainly many memorable and unusual stories, most of which I can't share on row2k, unfortunately.
Any/Most important advice for first time Olympians?
Tokyo was a unique Olympics because of COVID - there weren't spectators and we were in the country for a relatively short amount of time. The advice I would give myself from that event, which would apply to Paris as well, is do everything you can to avoid the distractions. I think most rowers, by the time they get to the Olympics, have been to a number of junior, u23, and senior world events, and have experience preparing for those events. They know what the rhythm of those events is like, you have your team hotel, you have transportation from the hotel, maybe there's other countries staying with you, and you're kind of familiar with that atmosphere.
Off the water, there's just so much going on, there's media, there's way more spectators, there's trading pins, there's processing to get in the village and the venue, to get out of the village, you're going to see celebrity athletes from tennis or basketball who are in line next to you. Even social media is different in that now your feed is gonna be almost exclusively Olympic related stuff. So I think the most important thing is mitigating the effect of all of that, and being able to really focus on the job that you're there to do, which is to race and win the Olympics.
What was your state of mind like sitting in the starting block of your first Olympic race?
The state of mind the last time around was pretty focused, because by the time you get to the starting blocks you know that you've done these preparations, these exact motions - rowing the boat across, backing down into the gate - probably hundreds of times before. So none of that should be novel at that point, and we will do visualization to help prepare as well. So by the time you get there, it's kind of a calm and a focus. There certainly is also an excited partly nervous energy, but more than anything it is very directed in the sense of "I'm very excited to be here, and I want to race."
Do you feel older/better/wiser/stronger/other?
I don't know about wiser. I think I'm better at rowing now. I'm certainly more fit. I'm stronger. I would hope that anyone who's been training for three years continuously, around my age of 26, would see those physical developments. It's hard to quantify how much of a difference that is from 2021, but most of the athletes across the whole team I think are overall stronger and better prepared.
Does the phrase "the Olympics" ring differently the next time around?
At least for me, it feels somewhat different this time. I think for most athletes, the first time they make an Olympic team, that's a very proud moment in that they've earned that distinction of being an Olympian. If you've been there once you already have that distinction. So in a way, the second time is easier in that there's less excitement around being an Olympian, because that's happened already, and it's easier to be focused on the task at hand of winning the race.
As far as regattas go, comparing the Olympics to different races (Worlds, Lucerne), is it a better or different regatta, or just higher stakes?
I think certainly it's a higher stakes regatta. It is different in that there's far fewer boats, so for all of the events, there aren't going to be as many stages to the racing. So in the four, for instance, we won't have a semifinal race. It's also different in that typically the Olympic courses tend to be a little bit less proven. At a course like Lucerne or even somewhere like Belgrade, there's a knowledge around what the course is typically like, what the venue is like, and there's this general intuition of how to prepare for that. Typically the venue for these Olympic courses, even going back to Rio and Tokyo, are a little bit less proven. The conditions tend to be a little bit more challenging. That was certainly true for Rio, and the expectation for Paris is that there's going to be a little bit more of a crosswind. At the end of the day its still a 6-lane 2000 meter race, so nothing new there.
Hometown: Old Lyme, CT
Club Affiliation: California Rowing Club
Date of Birth: September 11, 1997
Height: 6' 5"
Weight: 205 lbs
Undergraduate Education: Harvard University, 2019
National Teams: Eight - Junior 2014-15; Under 23, 2017, 2019; Senior, 2022-23; Olympic, 2020, 2024
International Results: Won the four at the 2024 World Rowing Cup II...Finished second in the four at the 2023 World Rowing Championships...Finished third in the four at the 2023 World Rowing Cup IIFinished fourth in the eight at the 2022 World Rowing Championships...Finished fourth in the eight at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games...Finished seventh in the four at the 2019 World Rowing Under 23 Championships...Finished fourth in the pair at the 2017 World Rowing Under 23 Championships...Finished fifth in the four at the 2015 World Rowing Junior Championships...Finished eighth in the pair at the 2014 Youth Olympic GamesFinished ninth in the eight at the 2014 World Rowing Junior Championships.
National Results: Won the pair at the 2023 USRowing National Selection Regatta...Won the pair at the 2023 USRowing Winter Speed Order...Won the pair at the 2020 National Selection Regatta...Finished third in the varsity eight at the 2019 IRA National ChampionshipsWon the pair at the 2017 Under 23 World Championships Trials... Finished third in the varsity eight at the 2017 IRA National ChampionshipsWon the second varsity eight at the 2016 IRA National Championships...Won silver in the four with coxswain at the 2015 USRowing Youth National Championships.
Personal: Liam enjoys playing and listening to music, as well reading Russian literature and rock climbing. He earned a masters degree in financial economics at Oxford University in 2022.
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