Olympics
Crew cut out to haul in gold

By Blaine Newnham
Seattle Times associate editor

ELAINE THOMPSON / AP UW grad Anna Mickelson of Bellevue, left, Caryn Davies, front left, and Sam Magee, right, were among the members of the U.S. national women's rowing team who trained in Seattle this past winter. Lake Union's water and wind conditions are considered similar to the Olympic rowing venue.

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A year ago, near the coast of Greece, races were postponed, then shortened as shells sank in the World Junior Rowing Championships in what turned out to be a terrible test of the Olympic venue.

The Greeks promise the winds will subside for this month's Athens Olympics. The rest of the world is battening down the hatches.

"I think everyone in rowing is extremely concerned," said Bob Ernst, the University of Washington coach who has been a television analyst on rowing for the past two Olympic Games. "The wind is the rule there, not the exception. You'd hate to see what happened a year ago happen again."

Wind or no wind, the Americans are primed to win medals in the featured eight-oared events for men and women, hoping to blow up the notion that they are awfully good at the world championships each year, but come the Olympics fade under pressure.

The United States hasn't won a gold medal in the eight since 1964 for men, and since 1984 for women when Ernst coached them to victory in Los Angeles.

As usual, Seattle rowers are sprinkled throughout the events. In 1984, there were three former UW rowers on the team that won the gold medal — Shyril O'Steen, Kristine Norelius, and coxswain Betsy Beard.

Graphic  Women's eight rowing

In this year's women's eight, there are two former Huskies, Anna Mickelson of Bellevue and coxswain Mary Whipple, plus the stroke of the boat, Lianne Nelson, is from Seattle.

In 2002, with basically the same group, the United States won the world championship. Last year one of its rowers caught a crab (made a faulty stroke), which stopped the team dead in the water, and it finished fifth.

"This is the fastest eight I've been in," said Mickelson, from Princeton, N.J., where the team trained before its departure for Europe. "This is the strongest, most-fit group of women I've been with.

"And we have faith we can perform under pressure."

The American women are good. They won World Cup races in Munich, Germany, and Lucerne, Switzerland, this year, beating what should be their stiffest competition in Athens: China, Holland and Germany.

	Matt Deakin

The coaches have put much more emphasis on rowing well in small boats. The knock on the United States has been that while it could dominate in non-Olympic years when other countries emphasized training in smaller boats — the U.S. men's eight won world championships in the three years before Sydney — it couldn't do well in the Olympics when everyone went for it in the eight.

"We're still strong like we were in 2002," said Mickelson, "but because we've spent so much time in smaller boats, our technique has improved."

There is no question the United States is benefiting from Title IX, and specifically all the scholarships being given women for rowing to offset those given men to play football.

The American boat is youthful. Two of the rowers — Sam Magee of Stanford and Caryn Davies of Harvard — are still undergraduates.

"There are a lot of tough sisters in that boat," Ernst said. "I've known Lianne Nelson for many years. She is not one of the biggest women in the boat, but she is the toughest."

The men also have a chance for gold. In the boat is Matt Deakin, who rowed at Washington for Ernst.

"He's a very gifted guy aerobically," Ernst said of Deakin. "He's definitely one of our country's better rowers. We've called him the universal donor; he makes anyone who rows with him go faster."

The American men's eight finished fourth in a big regatta in Switzerland in June. Its four-oared crew won the regatta, however, and in a dramatic shift the four who won in Switzerland — Bryan Volpenhein, Beau Hoopman, Dan Berry and Jason Read — were put into the eight. The boat has apparently gotten much faster since, although Canada looks like the favorite.

Volpenhein, whom Ernst calls the best American rower, will coach at Washington after the Olympics as part of an internship.

Jennifer Devine, the U.S. representative in the women's smallest boat — the single scull — is also from Seattle. Devine, who put aside her medical residency to compete in the Olympics, won an international race in Lucerne to qualify for Athens.

Devine, who attended Washington but did not row there, trains at Pocock Rowing Center on the banks of Lake Union, as does Sarah Hirst, who is a spare on the women's sculling team. Spares on the men's team include two former UW rowers, Erik Miller of Renton and Mike Callahan, next year's freshman coach at UW.

	URS FLUEELER / AP Coxswain Mary Whipple of Bellevue, Lianne Nelson of Seattle and UW grad Anna Mickelson, from left, will row for the U.S. women's eight.

Pocock's elite coach, Emil Kossev, will coach the lightweight women's double of Stacey Borgman of Homer, Alaska, and Lisa Schlenker of Portland. Pocock's Susan Parkman is also on the coaching staff. Former Pocock rower J. Sloan DuRoss is a member of the men's quadruple sculls.

Sarah Jones of Stanwood, an eight-time U.S. team member and a 2000 Olympian, will compete in the pairs with Kate McKenzie of Novi, Mich.

"Seattle has such great history and tradition for rowing," said Kossev, who emigrated here from Bulgaria, where the Americans are training before their arrival in Greece.

Maybe it is time for Seattle rowers to help create some new history.

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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