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)