Olympic Champions Pt 2

The night before any race we always meet in my room and Mike goes over all of the logistics for the next day including eating times and bus times so everyone is on the same page. We talk about the race, what we think will happen, who to look out for, what other people are capable of but more importantly we talk about what we need to do in order to win by a large margin. I always do a simulated race where I go over all the calls and most of the guys close their eyes and visualize the race in their mind. After all of that was done Mike did something that he never does in a pre-race talk. He read us a poem. It was a very special poem though. It was a poem about us. I'll always remember that he wrote a poem about the 1992 Canadian Gold medal Eight called "Barcelona Gold" and this time it was about us! It may seem odd to you, but to have Mike write a poem with your name in it means you have left an impression on one of the hardest men in the world. It was a very special moment for us all and one that I won't forget.

We had it all planned out.....we had practiced our race day ritual many times. We were like clockwork heading down to the course with everyone knowing exactly what had to be done on the water. Nerves are a tricky thing as they can sometimes hinder your performance if you let them get in the way. For us, it was always the acknowledgment that they were there, everyone was feeling them so it was normal to feel that way. You could feel some tension in the boat the morning of the race but that soon subsided over the 4km row and it soon switched to intensity over the final 2km of the race simulation where I go through all the calls on the course exactly where they would be taking place so the guys have a full visualization of the race.
Our race wasn't until 5:30pm which now meant we had from about 10am (morning pre-row done) till 3:30pm which was the bus down to the course. At one point Kyle and I literally had nothing to do so we just started packing our bags as it took our minds off the racing for a few minutes and allowed us to actually do something productive. I knew my weight was fine as I had been checking it religiously 3 times a day. All I was going to have to do was drink 250ml of water and my weight was perfect. (121.2lbs) Couldn't ask for it to be better than that.
As the guys showed up at the course we turned the boat over so Mike (coach) and I could give it one final check to make sure all nuts are tight, seats are moving smooth and the boat is totally clean. I remembered that our lightweight women's double was coming down the course so a bunch of us headed upstairs to watch them start the day with a bronze medal. The lightweight four followed suit with a bronze of their own. I remember thinking that this was great news for Rowing Canada as we were now poised to become the top medal sport for the country.

Olympic Champions!!!

WOW!!! What a thrill.....what a race!!!

The days leading up to the race my nerves were taking a beating.....one minute butterflies, the next minute full of confidence and ready to go. I had to keep telling myself that I am here because I am the best and that I have a job to do with 8 guys depending on me. I definately felt reassured when Jake Wetzel, (silver medalist from Athens) told me that he was really pleased with how I had taken control of the boat since we arrived in China and that he was really pumped for the upcoming final. Sometimes a little vote of confidence in your corner can go a long way. :)

The night before the final I realized just how well prepared we were for this final in comparison to 4 years ago. I don't feel we were underprepared 4 years ago rather we now had the experience to know what exactly is expected and what was forthcoming. We had been training extremely well all week generally running sub-world record times for whatever stretch of work we did, so we were keeping things on a boil for sure.

I have to stop writing this now as I have tickets to go and see Adam vanKoeverdon race his first final today. Check back as I will finish this later......sorry.....

By the way....I have taken so long updating as my hotel internet connection was not allowing me to get onto the blog site....

FINALS Race TIMES

I hear that people have been asking when the finals will be shown. Below is a list of Canadian boats in the finals on Saturday and Sunday. I am pretty sure that these will all be shown "live" on CBC but also remember to check TSN just in case they are showing it there.

The Men's Eight will be on Sunday August 17 at 5:30AM EST.

SATURDAY FINALS (Aug 16)
-------------------------------------------
Men's Pair - SILVER MEDAL!!!
4:30AM EST

Sunday Finals (Aug 17)
---------------------------------
Lightweight Women's Double - BRONZE MEDAL!!!
3:30AM EST

Lightweight Men's Four - BRONZE MEDAL!!!
4:10AM EST

Women's Eight
5:10AM EST

MEN'S EIGHT - GOLD MEDAL
5:30AM EST

Olympic Opportunities are Precious

The past few days have really hit home that Olympic opportunities are precious. They can be taken away in an instant and when it's gone....it's gone.
Once you get to a high level in sport you have to be careful not to take things for granted. I've said it before that you can't expect to finish in a certain position or have the performance you feel you deserve.....you have to make it happen.
The semi-finals of the heavy Men's Four went down the course on Wednesday and it left all three medalists from last years World Championships wondering what went wrong as none of them are going to be racing in the Olympic final! All three medal winning boats are out!!
That being said....the word is that there is a sickness going through the New Zealand camp but the Italians and Dutch haven't got that excuse. Excuse or not....the Olympics are over for the 2007 World Champion New Zealand Four. Just like that, a stomach bug can snatch it all away. We have been using anti-bacterial hand sanitizer like crazy. Three members of the German lightweight four got sick the day before their semi-final and they didn't even get to the start line.....we saw the coaches packing up their boat, Olympics over for them.
It just all became too real in the past couple days how quickly things can turn for something that is virtually out of your hands.
We are going to continue to be extra careful by using the hand sanitizer, drinking and using only bottled water. So far our hotel has not had any sickness at all.

Finals are set

All of the Canadian Men's Eight was down at the course today to have a look at the repachage and see who would make it into the Olympic final. Only the top four would qualify so it set up for a barn-burner of a race.

Here us the play-by-play from the rep

The USA got out to a lead and seemed to be moving away from the field as they went through the 500m mark then the Australians decided that they would follow them and kept right on the heels of the US. This trend continued to the 1500m mark then the Aussie's moved through the US and I thought they would take it home for the win but the US answered them and again pushed their bow out into the front and won the race. In behind all of this Poland was set in third with the Dutch and Chinese fighting it out for the final spot. The Chinese gave up too much in the early going to overcome the deficit they had found themselves in and came up about 1 seat shy of making the final. That was a huge blow to Chinese Rowing after having had such a good World Cup season. Just goes to show you though.....don't rest on your laurels and don't wait for things to happen for you.....make them happen, because if you don't someone else will control your fate....and that's never pretty.
The Germans never stood a chance. They changed their entire crew after Lucerne leaving all eight of those guys at home and bringing in fresh young blood for the Olympics...they even sacked the coach! It obviously didn't pay off for them...but maybe it will in the future.

So now the Olympic final is set and here are the boats that will be at the start line.

Poland, USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Netherlands

Not sure of the lane assignments just yet, but we will definitely be in the middle lanes with Great Britain. The lanes are seeded from the middle out. In the event of a crosswind, the top crews would get the advantage of rowing nearest to the shore so as to avoid the wind.

Thats about it for now....I will put up another post in a few days.

Hope you are all enjoying the Olympics as much as I am!!!

Heat WINNER!!

Part 1 of the Olympic journey is complete. We won our heat today in a time of 5:27.69. The margin to second place ended up being about 7 seconds to Poland. Convincing yes....but listen to this.

As you know we were delayed yesterday by a thunderstorm. Today, just before we went out onto the water it started to rain. Immediately I thought, "great, here we go, another delay", but there was no lightning so we continued and after 10 minutes the rain stopped anyway. Now, we get into the lane and the starting "boot" comes up from under the water to hold the bow of our boat in place and doesn't our little rubber bow ball get caught on it and breaks off! I called to the starter to tell him that we no longer had one as it is a safety issue and I didn't want to get a false start or DQ for something so dumb. The starter says it is ok and we will continue without it.
The race is off without incident and we start moving on the Australians getting just over a 3/4 boat length lead, then about 800m in the Aussie's all of a sudden start moving very hard into our lane. I tell the guys we need to go now to get out of the way! They responded well and got us the extra 5m that we needed to clear them or they would have run right into us!! Next thing you know they stop rowing and it is now a 3 horse battle! I was thinking this is nuts....aren't we at the Olympics??

Anyway....here are some details of the race.
Just before the starter announced that we were clear to race without a bowball, (major safety issue) a rower named James Tompkins looked across as me and said "does it really matter?" To which I responded...."Don't know". For all of you who don't know James, he is a 3-time Olympic Rowing Champion.....no small feat.
We were clear to go and the starter gave a pretty long pause which has been normal for this regatta so far. The start for me was eerily quiet. I don't know if I was in the moment and extremely focused or what but I couldn't hear anything except for our blades and my voice. I didn't hear the other coxwains which is odd because I always hear them. That being said we got off to a decent start and took a seat on the Aussie's. We held this for a bit and just before the 500m mark we were able to start moving on them which was a good thing because little did I know they were coming over to snuggle up to us in 300m!!
Once the Aussie's had rudder problems and bailed we had open water on Poland and the Dutch. The race was essentially over at that point and we just rowed it pretty clean to the finish executing the calls but not with the vigor you would if you had someone right beside you. The crowd wasn't as loud as I thought it would be but with the lead we had they didn't need to cheer too hard, we were clearly going to win.
At the finish line we were told to take our boat straight to the dock since without a bowball the cool-down area was off limits for us. That wasn't really a problem since we have 4 stationary bikes and 4 ergometers in our boat bay to cool down on.

I spoke with the Australian cox after all the media interviews were done and he looked pretty shocked. He said the rudder just got stuck to starboard and he couldn't get it off. The boat maufacturer was repairing it as he told me this. That being said, I use the same rudder/fin system....nearly the exact same boat!! I will be checking it over thoroughly tomorrow.

We now have to wait for the winner of the repachage tomorrow to know who will be in the final. The repachage will be a 6 boat race with the top 4 going through to the final.
Poland, Netherlands, USA, China, Australia & Germany will fight it out for the spots.

The winner of the other Heat was Great Britain. They did have a faster time than us by just under 2 seconds, but if you look at the time through 1000m we were ahead by 0.80 seconds. (1/3length) They have certainly put in some good work in the last 2 months since we last met them in Lucerne so I will be keeping my eyes on them for the final. Clearly they came here for a medal.

That's about it for now...I'll let you know tomorrow who we will be facing in the final.

Lightning Strikes! Booooo

For those of you loyal fans who got up to watch the Men's Eight race you were sadly dissappointed to hear that the racing was delayed then canceled. There was huge storm approaching as we were about to launch and they called it off shortly after that. We were about halfway through our warm-up when we were told to take it back to the dock.
It was a bit annoying, but there isn't much we can do about it really. Once we got back to the hotel, we began to prepare just as we had last night. We are very confident in our preparations to this point and to wait another day is fine by us. The goal is still to win the heat and that is what we are going to do.

It has been raining very hard since about 6:00pm tonight with frequent cracks of thunder and lightning. I'm interested to wake up in the morning and see if this storm has helped get rid of haze and improve the visibility. Today it wasn't too bad.

We will be racing tomorrow afternoon at 3:10pm which will mean 3:10AM EST. That's right. Anybody who wants to watch it will have to get up bright and early! It should be shown on TSN....but check CBC as well.

Sleep tight!

The DRAW

Heat #1 5:40pm (china time)
Poland, Australia, Canada, Netherlands

Heat #2 5:50pm (china time)
Germany, USA, Great Britain, China

First place in each heat advances directly to the Final on Aug 17, all the rest will go into a repachage race where the top four boats will advance to the final. Obviously it is advantageous to win and have the middle to the week to rest up and tune up for the final. (no secret there)

Remember that for those of you in Ontario on EST these races will come down the course at 5:40am on Aug 10. Everyone get up outta bed and watch! It's a Sunday!!

Let the racing begin!!!!!

GO TIME!!!

Here we go! The Opening Ceremonies start in less than an hour! We had some of the rowers attend including the spares but no members of the heavyweight men's team. We are all going to be watching a CBC feed in our common room. Ever heard of a Slingbox? That is what we are using.
It was super hazy today down at the course with about 700m visibility. It was as hazy as I have seen it since arriving on Aug 4. The course officials opened the "warm-up" area for 2 hours today so crews could take a look at it and better judge their timing for the warm-up. We took full advantage of this as usually we never get to go on the warm-up course before a regatta. It's just nice to know the exact timing and turns out I had it down to a science. As we paddled down near the end of the warm-up area I noticed quite a bit of weed on the surface of the water. Turned out that there we divers under the water cutting all the weed down low and then they had groups of people raking it in and pulling it ashore. I have noticed these "weed pickers" along the shore on other days as well. It seems that they like do things in large groups so as to be more productive, a novel idea :)
Everything down at the course is well laid out. The boathouse is very nice with large bays to store the boats. We share out bay with Belarus. They only have a four and a quad so it is mostly just us Canadians. (Women's Eight, Quad, Lwt Four, Men's Eight) In the upstairs portion of the boathouse we have 2 room set aside for just Canada. We use one as a lounging area and the other as a treatment room. We also got a router setup in there for wireless internet access. There are fridges upstairs with all the Coke products plus water for us to take as we please. In front of each storage bay there are coolers full of water so there is never a shortage of liquids.
Speaking of internet access, I have had no trouble surfing any pages that I want to. I have never been blocked from any normal browsing that I do.

I feel like this venue is a better setup than Athens was 4 years ago. Especially for the spectators in the Family & Friends stands. In Athens, the video screen was on the same side at the F&F stands so they could not see the live coverage. This year they have the large screen on the same side facing across the course but they also have a screen at the end of the F&F stands so they will all get a great look at the racing live.
This is the first time that we have ever had another venue near to us. Right beside us is white water kayaking. We have a Canadian contender in this event named David Ford. I'm hoping that I can check it out as I think it is the second week...time will tell.

Well, the Opening is about to begin so I am going to go and check out the CBC feed.

Enjoy the Opening Ceremonies if you are watching it live at work when you should be working!!!

How the Boats got here

I thought that this was a great article about how you get boats from Europe/Canada over to China.
We are using an Empacher which is mentioned in the story. Our boat came on the shipment from Lucerne, Switzerland.
Remember our boat is 60ft long and since 45ft containers are the largest you can get, it has a section built into it. It fastens together with bolts and creates a very tight seal.

Enjoy

http://worldrowing.com/display/modules/news/dspNews.php?newid=324460

Men's Eight-worldrowing.com's take

Below is what www.worldrowing.com had to say about the Men's Eight. I just copied and pasted it.

Men’s Eight (M8+) A lot is at stake in this event. Germany pin their rowing hopes on the men’s eight and have already undergone some last-minute team changes - including the coach - to make sure they deliver their best. The United States put its top sweep rowers into this boat as does Canada. Australia’s rowing hero James Tomkins describes this boat as rowing itself, the V8 of the sport. Coming into the Olympic Games, Athens champions the United States are a bit of a mystery. Coach Mike Teti has chosen not to race them internationally this year and they finished a disappointing fourth last year. But Teti plays a clever game and there is no doubt that he will be doing what’s right. Canada is less of a mystery. They are the reigning World Champions and have convincingly won the only race they had this season. These two crews must surely be leading the way. The big question mark hangs over China and Great Britain. China qualified for the Olympics by finishing seventh last year and have improved to pick up two very welcome Rowing World Cup medals this season. The Chinese nation has backed and hyped this boat to the hilt. They have the weight of 1.3 billion Chinese on their shoulders. Great Britain is also improving and has medalled at all three Rowing World Cups this season, despite regular crew changes. Keep an eye out also for the Australian boat - featuring the mighty Tomkins at his fifth Olympic Games, they won gold at the Rowing World Cup in Munich in May.

I have arrived in BEIJING!

Our departure from Japan started early as we got up at 4:00am and took a shuttle bus to the Narita Airport for our first flight at 8:30am. It was about an hour drive to the airport. We flew from Narita to Nagoya(1hr) then Nagoya to Beijing.(3hrs) As we were boarding for Beijing I was walking down the boarding tunnel with Ben Rutledge (6'6") and he didn't realize that there were heater hanging from the roof and one second he was beside me....and the next thing he was on the floor in total pain as he smashed his bald head on it! He hit it hard, I thought that someone had kicked the wall it hit so hard. As I looked at it once he recovered, I couldn't help but laugh as he had a huge red mark and skin hanging on the top of his head. The curse of being tall I guess!

As we touched down in Beijing and I peered out the window I realized that the view was extremely hazy, almost a fog. I came later to find out that it was in fact more of a fog rather than a smog/haze. (it was seriously odd at first though) The Beijing Airport is a brand new facility and is extremely large. It was pretty easy for us to navigate though security and such as there were lots of signs and it was also our first look at the army of volunteers that China has assembled for these games. People in blue shirts ready to help....some in good english and others in broken english, but we made it though ok.
Once we came out of the secure area in the main terminal there were a lot of people waiting there to greet us and it sure seemed like a lot of reporters, tv crews and photographers. Andrew Byrnes got a good photo taking a picture of 2 photographers as they took a picture of him. The COC (Canadian Olympic Committee) had representatives there with the organizational things in place in terms of a bus and where we needed to go. The ride to our hotel was only about 30mins.
I couldn't believe how few vehicles there were on the road. They were pretty much barren! I haven't really figured out yet if it is because we are out of the main city or if they have forced that many cars off the roads. Traffic our here in Shunyi where we are located is not going to be a problem.
Upon arriving at our hotel it was obvious that security is a high priority around here. There are arms guards checking your accreditation at the hotel gate just off the street and counting how many people are entering. Walking into the lobby you have to scan your bags and also walk through a vertical scanner and if it beeps they throw the wand over you. It is pretty much like airport security right in the hotel and you have to go through it every time you enter. To be honest, I really do feel safe here.
The hotel itself is less than 2 years old and is pretty much all marble. The rooms are great although the mattress is a bit hard but that's ok. The American and Italian rowing teams are also staying here in our hotel. It is so big that we rarely run into them other than in the main lobby. We all have our separate eating area's and common room's. Tonight we just got a slingbox hooked up to the common room TV so now we can watch regular programming in Canada via the internet. The opening ceremonies will be more interesting on CBC rather than some chinese station.
Staying out here in Shunyi was for sure the best logistical decision of the games so far. We are only 4 mins on the shuttle bus to the course. 4 years ago in Athens we had a 60min ride plus waiting at each end. This is awesome!

Well....it's time for me to go to bed now. We are 12 hours ahead of you over here. (compared to EST) I will give you some more insight into the course and Olympic life tomorrow. I need some rest. I've also really got to get some pictures up asap!! Sorry about that.

Brian

Countdown...10 Days

Here is a picture of the official clock in Beijing. I am not there yet, nor did I take this photo. Our women's team and lightweight teams have arrived in Beijing along with our physio and massage therapist. Our physio took this photo.We now have 3.5 days left here in Japan before we head into Beijing. Last night we had Marnie McBean and an RCMP Officer go over all the security briefings with us so that we wouldn't have to do it once we got there. He did mention that they the RCMP feels the security is competent. The Chinese do not want any problems and have about 500,000 people associated with security for the games!! To put this into perspective, the 2010 Games in Vancouver will have about 3500 people. WOW!! They may be overdoing it a bit, but I'd much rather over than under.

Anyway....I will try and post some pictures of the Japan camp later today.

What Olympians Do?

I'm sure that some of you are wondering what the heck we do with our time on an Olympic Preparation camp?
It's pretty similar to what we do at home, at least schedule wise. We row in the morning around 8:30am, get back to the hotel around 12:30 then head off again at 3:30pm for our second session and arrive back for dinner at 7:00pm. It takes about 30mins to bus there from the hotel and some messing around once we get there, hence the time away.
In our off time back at the hotel most guys spend it privately in their rooms. There have been quite a few enjoying some online poker, movies, TV shows card games etc.
Dinners here have been fantastic! Last night we had a guy making fresh sushi for us! I had a couple tuna nigiri on my plate.

From our perspective it's also interesting reading about all the Olympic stuff going on. Reading about other athletes, hearing about potential problems such as the haze over the city....stuff like that. At the end of the day the whole haze/smog thing doesn't really bother me as we have all be tested for complications from it and we are fine. Everyone has to breath the same air so we are no more disadvantaged than anyone else.

The days are ticking down and preparations are continuing to become more and more meticulous. Focus is drawing in tighter and tighter.

Above is a picture of us training today on the Nagaragawa River in Gifu, Japan

Photos in Japan

Kevin Light is the resident photographer and videographer of the crew. He has teamed up with CBC to create a photo gallery while we are here in Japan. Here is a link to the first installment.

http://www.cbc.ca/photogallery/sports/1431/

You can also check out his photo blog on the Rowing Canada website.

http://www.rowingcanada.org/rowing_news/light_mar06/

Emotions and Heat

It's been kinda weird for me since I've arrived here. The emotions that I have been experiencing have been odd. Nervous but excited, scared but determined, anxious but focused. I continually remind myself of all the training we have done to get here and that is what I must rely on as my daily foundation. A couple of times it has seemed like I'm in a dream or something and unsure if what I am doing is real....then I look around and think "why the hell would I dream about being in Japan on the 2005 Worlds race course??!!" I snap out of it in a hurry and get back on task.

It is odd for me since I usually only get a feeling of nervousness, in fact I have gotten more nervous the older and more experienced I've become. I remember racing at the Worlds in 2002 where it was really the first chance that we had to really dominate and win and I wasn't nervous at all. In fact, our coach said to us before the race "if you aren't nervous, you aren't going to win". I immediately thought oh sh**, I'm not going to win. Then I figured to hell with that, I'm winning this race! As it turned out we did in fact win it.
To combat the nervousness I have found that the better I prepare for each row the more confidence I have in what I am doing. That always calms me down. Prepare, prepare, prepare.

As I've been talking with the other guys in the boat the biggest thing for us right now is to keep reiterating to ourselves that this is it. The moment is now. This is the time to put all those hours and hours we spent training back at Elk Lake to good use. Doing erg workouts in a small room with all the windows closed, fans turned off, heaters literally cranked to get out bodies ready to handle the weather we are currently training in. It is 34deg here + the humidity and some days not a breath of wind. It was 32deg in that erg room every Friday this summer.
The first four days here have been tough, but we know that our bodies are adjusting to both the heat and the 16hour time change. Pushing through it is the best medicine for us. We will step up the intensity for 4 days starting tomorrow to really press the limits of our bodies and then we will look to execute the final high quality, high intensity pieces before we head into China on Aug 4.

At the end of the day, this is the final prep for the Olympics and I can't think of too many things more exciting than that! Whenever I put that into perspective I smile knowing that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I'm going to reach out and grab it.

In Japan, Pre-Olympic Camp

We have arrived in japan for our Pre-Olympic camp. The flight wasn't too bad actually...a casual 9 hrs. A few in flight movies, a full read of the Globe & Mail, couple meals and we got there! From Victoria it is a 16hr time difference for us....not a small feat!

The drive from the airport was still another 1.5 hrs to our hotel but it was good to see the lay of the land again, brining back memories of 2005 when I was here for the World Rowing Championships. I immediately noticed all the rice patty fields all over the place. They are very structured pieces of rectangular land that seem to be literally everywhere. They don't seem to have "yards" like we do here. If they do have a yard it always seems to be used for planting food or growing plants.

Our hotel is fairly westernized and the beds are thankfully long enough for all the guys. There is a shopping centre down the street and a bowling alley right in our hotel. We eat all of our meals in the hotel as per usual and so far they have been very good. Really big on making sure we have enough meat in the diet. Lots of food too.

The training venue is about 30 mins away and we all load into the hotel shuttle bus to get there. We were on the course yesterday for a short row which we call "rig 'n row". This is when we arrive at a new venue, get the boats all rigged up and take them out just to make sure everything is tight and adjusted to our liking, that way we can get on with training the next outing. The buoys lines were still getting sorted out as they weren't very straight yesterday but there were guys out there in boats working on them so hopefully they will be better today. It makes my job tough when there are 3-4 doglegs in a 2000m course!

All in all things are going well and the coach has given us the plan leading up to the Games. We will train twice a day while we are here working on developing our race plan, strategy and our precision to row together over the next 2 weeks. It is only 17 days till the opening ceromonies now.....every row, every stroke is ratcheting up the intensity and nerves!

Beijing sendoff

On Sunday we had a great send-off here in Victoria hosted by Pacific Sport for all of the athletes from the greater Victoria area that are attending the 2008 Olympics. Can you believe that there were 41 athletes in total!! I was impressed!

The local fire dept got things started off with a pancake breakfast for $2 and there was the local "street band" entertaining everyone. All the athletes gathered for the official march to the stage by two Chinese dragon dancers. I was surprised at how many people turned out to see us all. Once up on stage we were all introduced and welcomed by the crowd.
Pacific Sport had made up trading cards of us all and the kids were coming around to us getting them signed.
All in all a great morning and a good time. Brianna (my daughter) was up on stage with me for a bit, then got scared and I had to hand her back off to my wife Robbi at the side of the stage.

Here is a picture of my trading card, front & back.

I might be getting some extras soon so if you want one sent for you or your kids, let me know and Robbi should be able to send it in the mail as I will be away in Japan.

Change in Boats

As many of you may recall from reading this blog, I reported that we had decided to switch boats well over a month ago!! Well CBCsports.ca decided to make it a story and really tried to run with it. I don't really blame them I guess since we have in fact switched from a Canadian made boat to a German one.
The fact remains though that it is all about what we believe in and for now that belief is in the German Empacher boat.
Read the link below to see what I am talking about. The reporter tried for 15 minutes on the phone to get me to talk smack about the Hudson (Canadian boat) I just wouldn't bite. Nothing to say.

The reporter actually reported the story once.....then talked to the coach and I on the phone and reported it again on the same day!!

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/rowing/story/2008/07/03/olympics-news-menseight-boat.html

Men's Eight Intro From Adam

This is a link to Adam Kreek's blog on CBC. I just finished reading this "Intro to the Eight" and laughed my ass off!!
It is a bit of humorous look of what we are all about....including spirit animals. How the hell I am a crab I have no idea!!!

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/blog/athletes/adam_kreek/intro_to_the_eight.html#more

Lucerne World Cup Video

here is the link to the Lucerne World Cup 2008

Hope you enjoy our 3 second Victory

We leave in less than 3 weeks!

The Men's Eight is still here training in Victoria. The weather has been decent recently, not too hot, but no rain either. We will be here until July 19 where we will depart for Gifu, Japan on our pre-Olympic camp. There Pre-Olympic Camp venue will be the same one where the 2005 World Rowing Championships were held. We had our team manager scout it out earlier this year, so we're hoping that everything will be set up to our liking.


For about the past week we have been training with our Under-23 heavy men's eight. We did this for one sole purpose....to make our sessions more intensive and we get more out of ourselves from being in a pressure situation.....none of us want to lose a workout to a bunch of young punks!! Alas, the U23 boat is gone now to race at the Royal Henley Regatta in England to try and defend the Grand Challenge Cup title that we won last year. (I've won it three times....3 for 3) There were 4 entries and all races are duels. (two lane course) They have made it past the first round and are in the final Sunday July 6 against the Estonian Under 23 Eight. It should be a good tune up for them.

Now that they are gone we've done some workouts with the Lightweight Men's Eight, but they aren't really as much of a challenge and we usually kick the crap outta them everytime we do a workout with them. Because of this we will be doing more work in the pairs and fours this coming week. The guys relish the opportunity to "flex their muscules" when the eight breaks down into smaller boats. The chance to prove you are the best is what these guys are all about. I love it because I know it will make the eight faster!!

That's pretty much it for now. This Sunday we are all going to a Beijing Sendoff Breakfast in downtown Victoria. It should be a great chance to meet with the public before we take off shortly.

Although we are getting close to the Olympics, we have to keep our foot on the pedal. There are no shortcuts....we are in it to win it!

That picture was taken recently....loving the Trow shirt!!

Great Article

I kinda liked this article that was done on CBC.....I just found it now though

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/rowing/story/2008/05/15/f-olympics-rowing-menseight.html

I have also referenced it in the "articles" section of my blog.

Team Update

Just to keep everyone up to date on the entire status of the Canadian Olympic Rowing Team, here it is.

The last chance Olympic Qualification Regatta was held in Poland on June 19/20. We had several crews entered in this regatta because of a few sub-par performances at the 2007 World Championships by some crews. I will list them below as qualified or not.

As you will see we are sending a team of 8 boats to the Olympics in Beijing. We have had a couple of crews really step up to the plate this season and have some great performances. The Men's Pair of Scott Frandsen and David Calder won the World Cup in Lucerne and also the Qualifier in Poland. Other countries were asking where these guys came from. Scott is an extremely good rower and just missed out on making the Eight by 2.25 seconds over two trials and this will be David's third Olympic Games....a season veteran. (he took a few years off following Athens)
The Women's Eight has also made great strides finishing 3rd in Lucerne in a very tight race and 2nd to the reigning Olympic Champions Romania. They only lost by 0.01!!!

I would have to say that the medal favorites from Canada right now are of course the Men's Eight with yours truly steering the ship, Men's Pair, Women's Eight and Lightweight Women's Double. (Light Women have medaled twice on the World Cup tour this year)

That pretty much brings you up to date on the status of the entire team at the moment. It did really suck when the Quad and Four from the heavymen's camp didn't qualify....they needed a great start and it just wasn't there for either crew. They got behind early and couldn't make up the ground to qualify. Several of those guys have not retired from the sport not having had the chance to compete for an Olympic medal. I feel bad, but my journey must forge ahead....I still have some work to do.

Qualified in Poland
Heavyweight Women's Eight (won qualifier)
Lightweight Men's Double (3rd in qualifier)
Heavyweight Men's Pair (won qualifier)

Qualified at 2007 World Rowing Championships
Heavyweight Men's Eight (World Champions)
Heavyweight Women's Pair (8th)
Heavyweight Women's Quad (5th)
Lightweight Men's Four (4th)
Lightweight Women's Double (7th)

Missed Qualifying
Heavyweight Men's Quad (4th at qualifier)
Heavyweight Men's Four (3rd at qualifier)

Macleans Article

Macleans magazine just posted a pretty good article about us on the website. Not sure if it is also in the actual print magazine or not.
Here is the link. Worth a read on your lunch break :)

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/sports/article.jsp?content=20080618_135936_14240

CBC Newsworld Interview

This past Friday morning I was interviewed "live" on CBC Newsworld with Heather Hiscock. This was the hardest type of interview as I was at the Legislature building here in downtown Victoria while Heather was in the Toronto studio. I was getting all of her questions through an ear piece and I just had to keep looking into the camera. I couldn't see her at all. It was kinda funny watching the footage afterwards because I could see her expressions and it was different than what I expected.

Here is a link to the broadcast. Make sure that you scroll across on the video player to find the proper footage.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/

PS. Note the Trow gear!

Victory!!

Wow....what a race.
We went out to dominate just like I said we should and we did! China was the main contender as we expected but they were unable to hold us back. We got a seat in the first 10 strokes then China started to move back but we stopped them much better this time 30 seconds into the race and began to march ahead....slowly, but moving. By 500m into the 2000m race we had about 3.5 seats which is more than the 1 seat we had on them in the Heat. We were able to get into a very strong driving rhythm and just keep on dominating them every stroke.
As I looked across to the Aussie's and British I noticed that the Aussie's were not giving us a challenge but about 650m into the race the Brit's tried to out in a push which I know is uncommon for them at this stage of the race. Since I picked up on it quickly I was able to use their tactic against them and it motivated the guys to push them back and get nearly a length on them early in the race.
We kept our high pace going from 500m to 1500m and at that point we had open water to China and the rest of the field wasn't even close. We had to try and keep the open water advantage over China coming home in the final 500m. We lifted the rate (strokes/minute) and charged for the line. China did the same and began to make a step in our direction. 250m to go we stopped them for just enough time that we were able to preserve our open water lead and defeat them by 3.08 seconds.
All that being said, this was a larger margin than we won the World Championships last year so it indicates to us that we are in fact on the right track with our training.....but we still have a lot of work to do as China has made up a lot of ground in the past year. They placed 6th last year and are now the second fastest boat in the world! We will need to keep on top of our training in order to keep them behind us in Beijing.
The only Eight that was not in Lucerne was the USA. They don't usually attend World Cup Regatta's as they like to play their cards close to the vest and us the element of surprise to their favour. That's ok, we've been down this road with them before and know all of their tricks....they beat us in 2004 pulling the same tactic and we won't be letting that happen again!

We are back in Victoria now till July 20 when we leave for Pre-Olympic camp in Gifu, Japan. It is amazing to think that the Olympics are so close now. We aren't quite prepared yet and we plan on putting the next 2 months to good use.

Please take a look at the photos I put on flickr yesterday. Just scroll down this page along the right hand side and click on the flickr link. I have also been keeping the newspaper/online articles up to date so check them out too. I always welcome any comments or questions. If any of your kids are looking for a signed 8x10 of me and the crew, send me you address and I will put it in the mail for you.

briansprice@gmail.com

Finals Stage is Set

As I write this I am sitting in my hotel room taking a look over the results from the finals run during this mornings session and the first race that I looked at was our Men's Pair of Scott Frandsen and Dave Calder and they won!!! Now I'm wishing that I hadn't been taking a nap while their race was on, but I needed to focus on my own race later today.
That is amazing news and a great confidence builder for our entire heavy men's squad telling us that we are on the right track going forward to the Olympics. If you remember my blogs from April/May you will remember that Scott narrowly missed making the Men's Eight, but he has certainly made the most of his opportunity in the pair. I'm really proud of those guys!

The finals for the Eight are below. As was the case for the Heat, we expect China & Aus to go hard out of the blocks but it is important for us to stay on task and race our race. Should be fun :)
Here is the lineup from lane 1 to lane 6

Poland, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, China, Germany

Here is a picture of us from the Heat at about 1100m into the race. You can see China's bow to my right. We have nearly a full boat length at this point. The white buoys line up across the course, that is how i can tell

We Won the HEAT!!!

Well the Heat is over and we are heading straight to the final. We were able to execute a convincing victory over the Chinese beating them by 5.38secs with a time of 5:25.80.
This is a pretty fast time on this course even with a very small tail wind. The other heat was won by Australia in a time of 5:29.03. As you can see this is just over a 3 second difference. The interesting part is that they were pushed the entire way as they only beat Germany by 1.64secs. This gives us some valuable information. It tells us that they went flat out as they had to race the entire way to win. Remember it was only first place who goes directly to the final on Sunday.

We now have Saturday off from racing but we will still go out on the water before racing starts for a morning paddle and likely have another short row in the late afternoon to keep the body ticking over by doing a race warm up and a few 250m pieces.

Even though we had the fastest time of the day by a sizable margin, we can't take it for granted, we have the control but we also have to make it happen. The main contenders are still Australia, Germany, China and Great Britain for the final on Sunday. They now know that we are still fast and this will be their last chance to benchmark themselves against us so Sunday we will have to lay down a huge 2000m race.

This is an extremely intense yet exciting time for us. We've been waiting all winter for this and our time has arrived. Our final race before the Olympics is set for Sunday in Lucerne.

For all results check www.worldrowing.com
There is also a live race tracker there with audio commentary
Check the link for video feeds for the Sunday finals....it only cost $5 for the month.

Below are a few pictures from todays racing. Note our brand new yellow Empacher. It is a German made boat and is worth about $35000. They are letting us use it for free. They really want us to race it!
Always check the Newspaper links section along the right hand side of my blog for the newest articles. Here is the link to the one in the Toronto Star from today.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/433944

The Draw is done

I just got back from the course and have seen the draw for tomorrow's racing.
Below are the crews in our race

Heat #1 Australia, Germany, Great Britain & Poland

Heat #2 Canada, France, China, Netherlands

We are pretty happy with the draw. If we had a choice, we didn't want to race Australia till the final since they were the winners from 2 weeks ago in Munich at World Cup #1, so it works into our favour. At the end of the day you have to beat everyone to win!
China can be quick out of the start but I don't expect too much of a challenge from either France or the Netherlands.

All for now....off to dinner!

Above is a picture of us training this morning

CBC Sports Blog Profile on ME!

Scott Russell will be one of the anchors for the CBC Sports broadcasts during the Olympics and he just recently posted a blog all about me.

Here is the link if you want to check it out.

www.cbc.ca/olympics/blog/cbc_personalities/scott_russell/brian_price_is_canadas_little_2.html

In Lucerne and Ready to GO!!

We arrived in Lucerne after a short 3 hour bus ride through some glorious scenery in Northern Italy and Switzerland. Let me tell you, it's nothing like Canada. The only thing similar are the Rocky Mountains, but even then the landscape is totally different. Anyway.......

The first thing we noticed upon our arrival was the heat here, and it has gotten even hotter. It's certainly not unbearable, but its around 30deg. That being said, the course is in perfect condition as per usual with Lucerne and just a slight tail wind. We've been on the course 4 times now and have gotten into our routine as we practiced in Italy and have settled into our new digs at the Hotel Europe.

The rest of the Canadian Rowing Team had already arrived here in Lucerne as they decided to arrive a couple days early to the venue rather than having a pre-world cup camp as we did. The "rest" of the team is comprised of the heavyweight women, lightweight women and lightweight men. In a future blog I will explain this distinction and what crews we have boated in these classes.

Since this is a World Cup regatta I would encourage you to check www.worldrowing.com and you can listen to my races live as we are competing. If you would like, there is a link there to purchase a live video feed, although I think this may only be for the finals. I believe that we race around 2:30pm Swiss time. It may change slightly but that is a pretty good guideline. We will find out this evening (Friday) what the draw looks like for the Heat. The progression in the Men's Eight will be as follows. First place from Heat #1 & #2 will go directly to the final and the rest will go into 2 repechage races where the top two from each will advance.

We are obviously here to win, so no matter who we face in the Heat we plan on punching our ticket straight to the final with a win Friday.

Rowing China is playing dirty

As you may or may not know, I will not be living in the Olympic Village while in Beijing. This decision is based on our experiences from Athens where the bus travel was simply a nightmare. We had to wake up at 5:30am to get the 6:15am bus which could be full, then drive almost an hour out to the course. Upon our arrival we generally watched as the US, British and other federations walked through security after a mere 5 minute car ride from the house they had rented down the street. It was frustrating and the thinking was....why didn't we do that??
You might be thinking....that isn't much, but it truly is when you are trying to peak for the biggest race of your life under the extreme heat of the sun and pressure of the Olympics. Anything that isn't rowing, eating, sleeping or being inside air conditioning is not a good idea.

The reason that I have brought this up is due to some recent developments with the accomodations booked in Beijing for the rowing teams from New Zealand, Italy, France and Great Britain. They booked their hotel near the course ages ago, paid their deposit only to find out recently that they will now be unable to stay in the hotel and will have to either stay in the village or go elsewhere. The ironic part is this. According to reports, the Chinese Rowing Federation has now booked the entire hotel for themselves!! Unbelievable!! That is certainly making us nervous as we are booked in a hotel out by the course. What will be next, we can't stay there due to a health scare?? Amongst ourselves we have joked that on the day of the finals the buses out to the rowing course will "break down" or some unforeseen delays occur and throw a wrench into plans.
Thankfully we are still ok at our hotel but it certainly is casting a dirty shadow over the Chinese Rowing Federation if this stunt is in fact true. I'm all for a fair fight, but to me, that is downright dirty!

Here is a link to the story.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4560089a6656.html

Here is another posted after the one above

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4562848a26500.html

New Olympic Boat-We've changed!

I mentioned some time ago here on the blog that our Beijing Olympic boat had arrived in Victoria....well, we have had some new developments.

While we were trying it out and getting it all setup for the Olympics, we kept on finding that we weren't just quite comfortable in the boat from the way it felt, to the way it ran in the water and even steered. As these problems kept on coming up over and over we began to lose confidence in this boat as our Olympic shell. Ever since I got into the boat I had trouble steering it straight but just put it off to it being a new boat and me needing to be better but it kept on going and going. Finally we did some testing on it to see if it was me, the guys or the boat and it came to be a problem with the shape of the hull. That pretty much sealed its fate right there.
As this testing was going on we were running out of time since we were coming over here to Italy and the Olympic container needed to be loaded with the shell we were going to use in Beijing. We decided that the newest hull was no longer an option but we had to put a boat into the container so we decided to stick with the shell that won the 2007 World Championships. There are a couple of drawbacks there as we used it all winter and it has been well used, normally we want a brand new hull, slightly broken in (2-3 weeks) for all serious competitions.
As the 2007 boat was being loaded we contacted Empacher (german boat builder) and asked them if they would be interested in making a boat for us to try and potentially race in the Olympics. Imagine the phone call.....its like your best client whom you haven't done any work for in 7 years calling you and asking you to take control of its biggest project!! They were very excited and got an amazing boat built and delivered in a week!
We have been rowing in it now for the entire Pre-World Cup camp and it is a very fast boat. We are all happy with the way it runs in the water and responds to our power. The steering is a little touchy for me, but that is just something to get used to. Empacher has long been the standard to which all other boats are measured and they have a long history of making eights....fast eights.
The Canadian Men's Eight hasn't rowed in an Empacher since 2001. We made the change in early 2002 to Hudson and never looked back till now. Hudson are still great boats, they just didn't pay enough attention to all the detail that needs to go into an Olympic hull. That is a reminder to everyone reading this.....its not just another job or another project, the client expects top service and consistent service with every job or you might find the next one goes to.....dare I say it.....Stantec!!!Above is a picture of me sporting the Trow name while on tour!!

I'm on CTV tonight!!

If anyone happens to check this blog over the weekend at home, unlikely, but if you do check out CTV Saturday May 24 at 7pm ET for a documentary called S&M;Short & Male. I will am both short and male and I am in it!

I was contacted back in February of 2006 asking me questions about being short etc. The producers were brainstorming and came up with a short guy who works amongst large men, the coxswain of the Eight is the perfect one. They contacted Rowing Canada and got in touch with me.

The producer, Howard Goldberg (he is the guy in the picture below) arranged to come over to Eton, England for the World Rowing Championships and do some interviews with me and a couple of the rowers. I really can't remember what I said so I may have made a fool of myself, I can't remember! My mother has told me she has seen some ads on CTV promoting it and apparently in one of them I am being hugged by Kyle Hamilton and Adam Kreek and Kyle says "he's just so cuddly"! Wow!

Anyway...check it out if you are sitting at home. If it ends up on youtube.com I will point a link to it from here.

http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/Interviews/Features/Articles/080522_shortandmale_AD

Off to Italy for the World Cup

Here we go. It's race time now. I'm sitting in the lounge at the Calgary airport on a layover waiting for the next leg of my flight to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Milan, Italy. Our team will be spending 8 days in Italy in a little place called Erba. It is located about 1.5 hours outside of Milan and is a place that we have come many times for training camps in the past. It is important that we are able to make the 9 hour time shift from our homes in Victoria. We won't have a lot of time to get this done and the training that we do there will be paramount to our success at World Cup # 2 in Lucerne Switzerland May 30-June 1.
As I mentioned in my communicator article, this regatta will serve as our pre-Olympic race and it wil be our only chance to show our speed and measure ourselves against the rest of the world. 4 years ago we raced 3 times in the Olympic year and it was just too much. It never felt like we ever got into a groove during that summer. We were constantly in a state of racing. Since 6 of us were there, we decided this time to focus on one regatta then come home prepare for the Olympics.
The Men's Eight will be coming home after Lucerne but the rest of our heavymen's team will go back to Erba for another training camp then head to Poland for the final Olympic Qualification Regatta. They did not secure spots at the worlds last year and must now do so in Poland around June 15. If you hear about crews qualifying in the paper but don't see any mention of us....thats because we have already qualified.

This is a pretty exciting time. I love racing in Lucerne. It is a beautiful city and an amazing course. Dead straight stretch of land in the middle of town, perfect for a rowing venue. It's rarely ever windy but if it is, you're looking at a tail wind or headwind....never a cross wind.

We didn't attend the first World Cup Regatta this year in Munich where the Australian Men's Eight came in a won over Great Britain and China. They basically stormed out of the blocks throwing everything at it in the first 600m then everyone else slowing started to catch up. We'll see if they do it again in Lucerne or if they try a different approach. The Germans finished fourth which isn't a good result at all with it being on your home turf, but they always seem to suck early in the season then get better through the summer so we expect to see a much better german boat . I'm not sure if the US will be there, but you can be sure they will be contenders, they're always fast.

So the main crews will be the Aussies, British, China and the USA if they show up.

Well....I have to catch a flight, but I will try and keep the updates coming while we are on this 2 week World Cup trip.

For all your Rowing needs visit; www.row2k.com or www.worldrowing.com

Brian

Burnaby Office Visit

After training last wednesday I had the opportunity to head over to the mainland and have a visit with the employee's at the Burnaby office.
I had a great time meeting you all and I thank you for the chance to be able to bring you into my world as we make the leadup run for the Olympics in August.

Thank you Burnaby!

PS if you or you families have any questions, please email me and I can post the response.

briansprice@gmail.com

Great Article

Here is a link to a really good article by Randy Starkman. He is from the Toronto Star and is a big supporter of all amateur sport including rowing. A great guy too.

http://www.thestar.com/article/424199

CBC Sports

CBC Sports has come and gone and completed the footage that they will be using for the Olympic broadcast. It was quite nice of them to take us out to dinner as a chance for them to get to know us a little bit. We met the most of the CBC Olympic anchor hosts including Scott Russell, Diana Swain and Ian Hanomansing. Ron Maclean was on duty with Hockey Night in Canada and couldn't make it.

They really did great some great shots of us training in the eight, fours, pairs, weight lifting and also erging. I was able to hook them up with our catamaran coach boat which made for some really stable shots. You will all be pleased to hear that the TROW logo was proudly and distinctively displayed the back of my jacket for all the rows in the Eight. It is really obvious whenever they were shooting the Eight from behind. I also had on a Trow vest on for my interview.
I'm not too sure exactly what features they will be doing as the producer kept getting ideas the more he saw of us and got to know us. The reaction we got from the cameraman while shooting the erging footage was great. The guys had finished their 1 hour weights session and he had now been filming them on the erg for about 20 minutes. The guys stopped to grab a drink and he thought that was it. I said "no, that was the warmup, they still have 40 minutes of actual hard work to do!" He looked at me dumbfounded and said "how do these guys do it?" To which Adam responded "hop on and I'll give you a lesson!"
They also shot a "promo" of the Eight in front of a green screen and are hoping to be able to use it in pre-Olympic stuff I guess. A couple guys also had short answer "promo" stuff done with the green screen. I imagine it will be kinda like NHL playoff promo stuff on TSN or CBC.
Anyway....just wanted to let you all know that things are still moving along well here. We have the Olympic Eight (physical boat) pretty much tuned up as we want it. It will be going into the container bound for China in 2 weeks. We leave for pre-World Cup training camp in 2.5 weeks in Italy.....time is flying by. In less than a month we will have raced the World Cup in Lucerne, our only race of the season prior to the Olympics!

Below is a shot of Adam Kreek and I in front of the green screen.....Adam is 6'5" 210 and I am 5'4" 124!!

Eights Selection is OVER!!

As you all know, the Men's Eight is the boat that everyone wants to be in but at the same time many of the guys realize they aren't going to get a shot at a trial. Since we won last year many would assume that all of us had our seats "locked up" for Beijing. This is simply not true. The way that most of the guys locked up their seats was by performing well in training and testing over the winter.

We had one guy, Scott Frandsen who raced in the four last year, that stepped up his game and showed the potential to make the eight go faster and replacing one of the current World Champions. The coach gave him the opportunity to challenge our bowman Kevin Light.
Just a quick history lesson here, these two guys didn't just meet or anything and Scott didn't come out of nowhere. He is an accomplished oarsman in his own right and was a member of the 2004 Athens Olympic Eight, has won an Under-23 World Championship in the Eight, two NCAA Championships at the University of California and also won the famous boat race between Oxford/Cambridge in England brining the win home for Oxford.
That being said Kevin is a 3 time World Champion in the Eight, a member of the Athens Eight and in 2006 won a bronze medal in the pair at the World Championships.
These guys are both very accomplished rowers and both deserve success in Beijing but only one could go in the Eight. The coach decided that it would be settled over two pieces of work. We would go out with Kevin and race a 1250m piece and a 750m piece. We come into the dock and do the same with Scott. Add the times of each guy and the fastest one wins.
Kevin was faster by 2.5 seconds overall.

This was not an easy task for us in the Eight as we are good friends with both guys and have a good history with both guys. We all felt that we gave it everything we had for both guys and it was a fair fight.
As the coach has told us many times....we aren't here to row with our friends. Friends come and go but a medal last forever.
From here we keep on training and put the pedal down as the Lucerne World Cup is drawing closer. We fly out on May 18!! The regatta starts June 1.

Below is the link to the write-up by the Toronto Star. I also put it in the links along the side of this blog. (April 17)
http://www.thestar.com/article/414946

Boycott Banter

Shunyi Olympic Rowing Venue
Talk of a boycott has been front and centre in recent weeks and I figured that my 2 cents was worth just as much as the next guy walking down the street....in fact, its worth more since it will influence my life directly!

Did we not learn anything from the boycotts of 1980 & 1984? Did the fighting in Afghanistan stop? Ya....9 years later, and it was most certainly not due to the 1980 Moscow boycott! Politicians and protesters have been trying to use the Olympics for years to further their own messages. What about the athletes like me who just want to compete? I'm not being paid by the government to be an activist, politician or protester, I'm an athlete on a rowing team. (and the pay isn't that good either!)
When people say they think all Canadian athletes should boycott and if we don't we are just being selfish, I say....ya....maybe I am.....but I've been working towards this for 10 years and I'm not about to give up on it and stop now. I challenge those pro-boycotters to let me come over to their house and search it up and down for goods Made in China. I know for a fact that I will find many, many things.....in fact the keyboard and mouse that I am using is made there. Turn yours over and check it out. It is a bit hypocritical of people to tell me to boycott the Olympics when they can't even boycott Chinese made goods. When your house is "china clean" come talk to me.
When I speak to children, I often talk about setting goals and reaching for you dreams. For some being a doctor or lawyer or teacher would be considered living their dream. Mine is winning an Olympic Gold Medal. The window of opportunity to achieve this is very small. How would you like it if I told you that you could no longer live that dream of being a teacher and you would have to do something else? No more teaching. It would be an appalling thing throughout this nation, yet some think telling me the same thing is acceptable.

At the end of the day I think what is going on in Tibet is terrible. I don't agree with the way the Chinese government handles its people politically or socially. I just don't see how me not competing at the Olympics will solve anything. I am an athlete caught up in the middle of a political agenda. I didn't choose which nation would host the games. It could be anywhere in the world for all I care, I just want the opportunity to race and compete for my country. More people in Canada will be proud of me if I come home with an Olympic Gold Medal than they will if I am forced to make a worthless political stand. I thought I lived in a nation of opportunity, freedom and democracy?

Olympic Eight Arrives!!!

We just received the actual boat that we will be racing in Beijing 4.5 months from now. It is manufactured by Hudson Boatworks out of London, Ontario. They have been our supplier of top quality boats for years now.
We wanted to have it show up here before it goes into the shipping container so that we could try it out and make sure that everything is setup the way we want it. We have had a couple of little glitches with it but nothing major. The boat itself feels really good and like rowing any new boat....it is very quite. Nothing creaks or squeaks. The main colour is white but the bow and stern decks are painted red/white/red like a Canadian flag which makes our boat a little unique. They were going to make it an all red boat with white trim, but the darker colour attracts the sunlight and we didn't to compromise the integrity of the hull's stiffness.
The boat will be here for about 2 weeks so if anything needs to be changed or adjusted we will have time to do so.
As we were rigging it today it started to hail.....then hail harder....then harder still....so we moved the boat inside the boathouse and finished rigging it there. By the time we were ready to take it out, the sun was shining.....halfway through the workout it started to hail hard again, but it only lasted about 5 minutes.
Anyway....we are pleased with the new boat and this will alleviate any fears of it not being to specifications any parts missing.
Bring it on!!!

Testing Results

The big boys from the Eight performed like they deserve to be in the boat which will make it very difficult for someone outside of the 2007 lineup to crack it.....maybe only 1 possibility and that would be due to injury.
For the rest of the squad there were some guys who were able to separate themselves apart from guys who have been close to them and this will only help to impress the coaching staff to get a shot at the selection for the four.
All in all there were some extremely good erg scores that illustrate to me the raw power that the Eight possesses. This is something that our coach is continually trying to utilize on the water so that we don't take our power for granted but that we are able to transfer all of this power onto the oar.

Selection will likely be starting in about 2 weeks or less....we will be having a team meeting soon to discuss exactly what April holds.
You can definitely tell that the pressure is mounting amongst the group. Remember, Olympic dreams are on the line here and this is just the beginning!!

This Round of Testing is Important

For some guys this round of testing could either make or break their Olympic campaign. As I have mentioned before, there are more guys in our program than just the Eight. We are also going to try and qualify a Four, Pair and maybe a Quad at the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Poland around June 20. This means that we could have up to 10 more seats for guys to fill, not including the Eight as it has already qualified. That may seem like a lot, but remember, those 10 seats have yet to qualify for the Olympics. The coaches haven't even decided for sure if we will be sending all 3 to the qualifier, if they don't prove to be fast here on our home turf then the number of seats could drop even more.

Currently we have the Eight and then a bunch of guys who are all around a similar level. This round of testing will give them an opportunity to prove to the coaches that they have made improvements since January and that they want to be part of the Olympic team.
This round of testing will the be the same as the last and everyone currently in Olympic Camp will participate. 6km Ergometer Test, 2x2km in the Pair, 2x2km in the Single
We add up all the times and presto, we have an overall ranking that the coaches can use to help determine boating orders for the fours & pairs. The higher up the ladder you are, the more likely you will get a pair partner of your speed and the more likely you will go fast to get into either the Four or Pair. If we ever have an injury in the Eight....this could also be your chance to shine as the possible replacement.
Our Olympic boat selection will begin in early April, so this round of testing is crucial. You can make it easier on yourself by finishing high up the ladder now so when crunch time comes, all the pieces are in place so that all your fellow rowers and coaches have faith in you that you can make boats go fast!

World Champs back on the water

We boated the World Championship boat order for the first time in just about 2 months. It has been for no other reason than the dreaded injury bug!
We have had a couple of guys with extended injuries that have kept them from doing workouts in the eight. One with a back injury and one with a rib fracture. (yes...broken rib)
The boat felt really good even though it was just a technique paddle......the guys were more attentive to the calls and everyone was able to contribute to the boat speed. We were able to make subtle changes in technique as a unit rather than searching for something and coming up with nothing.

Anyway....we haven't had any work sessions with this combo back, but if this mornings row is any indication, it should be fast and fun!

School Program Launched!

The Canadian Olympic Committee in conjunction with RBC has launched a website called Olympic School which is a great resource for teachers, kids an schools. Currently rowing is the featured sport and I am one of the featured athletes. Not a big "feature" but nonetheless, there I am.

Encourage your children to use this website and check it out!

http://www.olympicschool.ca/default.aspx?PageID=1034&LangID=en

Hello! Magazine Photo Shoot

This past weekend the Men's Eight showed up at the Empress Hotel, (best hotel in Victoria) for a suave photo shoot. HELLO! Magazine had approached Rowing Canada's marketing department about doing a 2 page spread pertaining to a pre-olympic issue and build up.
I was surprised at just how much time, money and effort went into this on their part. The clothes and stylist flew in from Toronto. The photographer and makeup girls were from Vancouver and the location had been pre-scouted a couple weeks ago. All that for a 2-page spread!

Upon arrival to the "Bengal Lounge" in the hotel we were greeted to a huge rack of clothes, shoes, ties & belts. Thank god there was a stylist deciding what we would be wearing. All of the clothes have yet to arrive in stores so this was mini preview of what was going to be "in" this summer. A couple of the guys dress pretty well....but for the most part we are just your normal dressers so this was different for sure!
I like the look that Kyle ended up with which she called "nerd/sheik". Basically and argyle sweater vest and white dress shoes, he wasn't too sure, but I thought he looked good!

Anyway, once we got our clothes on we sat in the makeup chair for about 10mins getting all kinds of crap put on our faces. No wonder ladies take longer than us in the bathroom!

The photo itself was done in front of a fireplace and had us all looking pretty sharp. Funny thing too was making sure there was room in the middle of us all for the "seam" in the magazine, something that didn't cross my mind but the pro's there knew to make sure it didn't land on one of our faces.

The whole thing took about 2.5 hours and was a good time for sure. It will be in either the July or August issue so make sure to grab it while at your local convenience store this summer!!!

Our "B" boat defeats Cambridge

Last week our "B" Men's Eight was over in England to race Cambridge University as a tune-up for them before the famed Boat Race with Oxford. Each year both Oxford & Cambridge do this to get experience racing a top international crew as their final preparation.
Our B boat is by no means a bunch of slouches.....they are fast and they proved it beating them by 1.5 lengths in the first 7 minute piece and then 4 lengths in the next 7 minute piece. It was kind of funny as the margins were reported in the paper as much smaller than they actually were but who cares....a win is a win. What ever makes them feel better.

The official boat race takes place on March 29. If you are interested in more info you can check out
http://www.theboatrace.org/

Here is a press release about the race.
http://www.sirc.ca/news_view.cfm?id=20001

In the past 4 or 5 years we have had many Canadians in the victorious boats and they have also held the title of president twice at Cambridge and once at Oxford over that time. With this being an Olympic year the level of oarsman is not nearly as high usual, but the British love this race nonetheless.

Invites and Awards

This isn't a new thing, but the invites and awards are continuing.

Whenever you win, people start calling letting you know you have been nominated for different awards and TV camera's want to come out and film us. Don't get me wrong...this is all cool, but we have to make sure that we don't A) let it get to our heads & B) get in the way of our training.

We recently attended an awards banquet here in Victoria where we won the George Hellar Award for outstanding team of the year for PacificSport. It was a great gala with all the local press there. That banquet was easy since it was in Victoria. The next two that we have been invited to are in Vancouver and Winnipeg! Vancouver might not seem far, but we are on the island and need to take the ferry and since the last ferry runs at 9pm that means staying overnight.
What we have decided to do instead is send two people to Vancouver for the BC Sport Awards where we are up for Team of the Year and two different people to Winnipeg for the Canadian Sport Awards where we are up for Partners of the Year.

Next week we have a photo shoot on our Sunday off with a prominent Canadian Magazine where they are looking to do a big spread on us. I will tell you who later....once we know all the details about the shoot. Also next week we are currently scheduled to meet with comedian Rick Mercer and appear on the Mercer Report. This will be shown nationally and should give us some great press.

We were also invited by Cambridge Boat Club in England to race them prior to The Boat Race on the tideway...all expenses paid, but instead we are sending our second crew who should give them a run for their money.

So as you can see.....between awards, invites, tv shows and photo shoots, we have to keep our eyes on the prize in 6 months and not get too caught up in all the hype and miss what got us to this point which is training our butts off!!

Training Going well in Oakland

We've been down here now for a week and training has been going well for most of the team. Some members have gone down for a few days with some kind of sickness/flu bug. It seems as though it hits someone new each day. Time for isolation rooms I think!!

The weather has been much better the last few days as we haven't seen rain since Sunday.(day off) Training on the waterway is definitely different than on Elk Lake. For starters it is salt water and absolutely filthy! We all try to make sure that if we get our hands wet.....which we obviously do, we don't touch our mouths or eyes. As soon as we get back to the boathouse everyone has a shower, washes up and uses disinfectant hand sanitizer. Apparently you can get a nasty staph infection if you don't. Since my clothes usually get wet, I only wear them once so I have a few "outfit" changes per day!

We generally row about 10km down the waterway and if we wanted to could row out out to the Bay Bridge or Alcatraz, but it is usually just too rough with all the container ships out there. I think we all had pretty much the longest row ever the other day. Two hours almost continuous, just 2 short 4 minute breaks. Talking for that long did start to get a bit much for the guys, but I suppose you could suffer through worse. (training meetings :))

Arrived in Oakland California

The Olympic Rowing Team has arrived in Oakland California for its annual winter training camp. We are staying in a place called Alemeda which is right near the Oakland Airport. Several of the rowers in camp went to school down here at the University of California Berkley and so we are boating out of their very new 10 million dollar boathouse!!! Yes....10 million!! It is amazing. It makes our facility at Elk Lake in Victoria look like crap....but then again....it is.

Anyway.....we will be training twice a day here which may not seem like much, but these are 2 hour rows and we will always do at least one long run of 40minutes of hard rowing in eights side by side, no stopping....this is killer stuff. So far, my boat has won both of the rows leaving the other boat in our wake basically alone for about 25mins. Not fun for them. We will continue to row in the eights for the next few days then we will break up and row in 4 fours for a few days.

I can't stress enough how important this training camp is for us as a crew and a team. This is the type of environment when all of our focus is on rowing, we can bond more as a crew on the water and learn what makes us go fast. The physical aspect of this camp will pay off huge in 2 months. Anyone who misses out on this camp or doesn't take full advantage of this situation could find themselves struggling to make a crew come selection time in March/April.

These pictures are of the Cal Bears Boathouse....it is sweet!