Longtime teammates now have gold in their grasp

BEIJING — Ten years ago, without ever knowing exactly where it would lead, Mary Whipple and Anna Mickelson began preparing for this moment.

They climbed into a boat together at the University of Washington and started their around-the-globe odyssey.

For 10 years they rowed through the pre-dawn mists. Ten years they spent together in the weight room. Ten years in the boat. Ten years of tiring, glamourless work. Ten years traveling around the world, for this moment.

All that time they were looking for gold.

And 10 years later, half a world from home, they found it.

"This [gold] was always in the plans," said Anna (Mickelson) Cummins, who, during the journey, fell in love with and married former national team member Bob Cummins.

The United States won its only Beijing rowing gold Sunday. Whipple was the coxswain of the winning women's eight and Cummins was in the middle of the boat.

"I really do feel complete," Cummins said. "After [winning silver in] Athens I really thought, 'I wonder what I could really do if I worked really hard for four more years?' And now I know."

And every day Whipple was there with her. Teaching her. Pushing her. Training with her.

"Mary and I have a friendship that has grown out of a common respect for what we do out on the water," Cummins said. "It's like we're connected like sisters. There's this quiet confidence that we have with one another. I trust Mary completely and that's a cool thing to have going into an Olympic finals."

This was Cummins' final race. She is retiring, moving back to Bellevue from Princeton, N.J., and preparing to start a family.

She is leaving on top of the world, after beating Netherlands, Romania, Canada, Germany and Austria in Sunday's final. She is leaving knowing she finished what she and Whipple started a decade ago on the Montlake Cut.

"It's a perfect ending to a great relationship," Whipple said.

They have been the ideal battery, like Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver. They understand each other the way best friends and close teammates do. They get each other.

"It means the world for me to start and end with Mary," Cummins said. "I love her with all my heart. She just knows how to inspire the best. And she is the best coxswain in the world, hands down."

They have rowed together through rain, snow, fog and blistering sunshine for this moment on a cool, overcast day in Beijing. And they rowed their final race exactly as it was scripted.

"Anna grew into becoming an amazing rower," Whipple said. "And I rely on her to lay down that rhythm. She's the engine. Determination. Never giving up. Just driving to the line. That's what Anna does."

This was the U.S. women's first gold in the eights since the Bob Ernst-coached 1984 Olympic team. Four members of that team were from the Northwest. And that team has inspired this team.

The 1984 gold medalists won their Olympic race on Lake Casitas in Ojai, Calif. The 2008 team made a pilgrimage there recently, rowing on the historical lake, then sprinkling water from it on their boat, a sort of crew christening.

"We talk about the 1984 team all the time," Whipple said. "We even had uniforms like theirs made and wore them all the time at practice. And when we came here we were on a mission. We knew we could produce a gold medal-winning race, just like they did, and we just decided we were going to do that today."

The U.S. didn't just win this race. It went wire-to-wire, beating silver medalist Netherlands by almost two seconds. The Americans jumped into a quick lead, then, halfway through the 2,000-meter race, Whipple called to her crew to "join the 1984 women."

That 1984 team was a trailblazer. Women's sports were just beginning to emerge in the U.S. and this 2008 team believes it owes much of its success to the energy and sacrifices of its predecessor.

"They were rowing at a time when it still wasn't PC for women to be doing sports. It was still pretty early," Cummins said. "And they were strong and they were beautiful and they won the gold. There's a really strong connection with the '84 boat."

The name of this U.S. boat is The Hunter because, Whipple says, "We are always hunting that finish line. That kind of explains Anna and my career together. We've been hunting this line for a long time."

From their freshman year at Washington, to the finish line in Beijing. From the frosty pre-dawn on the Cut, to the medal stand at Shunyi Park.

Around the globe, Whipple and Cummins have chased gold.

And, in their final race together, with a subtle, inspirational push from the 1984 boat, they caught it.

Steve Kelley: skelley@seattletimes.com. Read his blog from China at www.seattletimes.com/Olympics