Windermere Cup keeps international flair

By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter

MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES The Italian men's crew team, shown working out on Lake Union Friday morning, competes in the Windermere Cup Saturday.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

The members of an Italian national rowing team in town for tomorrow's Windermere Cup looked around the University of Washington earlier this week. They had the wide-eyed awe of kids making their first trip to Disneyland.

When one team member was asked for an interview, most of the others gathered around to soak in the experience, one pulling out a video camera to record the event for posterity. Later, they ran down the steps to Husky Stadium, then excitedly posed for pictures at midfield.

"They are amazed by all of this," said Roberto Blanda, who understands the feeling better than anybody.

Fifteen years ago, Blanda made a similar trip with another Italian national team, which won the 1989 Windermere Cup by beating Washington, New Zealand and California.

18th Annual Windermere Cup When: Tomorrow. Where: Montlake Cut First race: First of 17 races is at 10:20 a.m. Feature races: Women's Erickson Cascade Cup at 10:56 (Washington, UCLA, Washington State, Oregon State); Men's Erickson Cascade Cup at 11:06 (Washington, Oregon State); Women's Windermere Cup at 11:25 (Washington, Italy, UCLA); Men's Windermere Cup at 11:30 p.m. (Washington, Italy, Navy).

Blanda was so taken by the experience — and a return trip to Seattle for the 1990 Goodwill Games — that he decided he wanted to attend school at Washington and become a member of the Huskies rowing team.

"I just fell in love with Seattle," he said.

So much so that he gave up a job in the Italian Army — in which he basically was paid to row — to come to UW "basically blind," as he put it.

"It was really a jump. I didn't know what I was doing. I just got on an airplane and came here," he said.

For a while, he lived at the crew house, subsisting mostly on peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and working two jobs to get by.

But it was worth it, Blanda said, to be able to row and get his education at the same time. In Italy, he said, the choice is usually one or the other.

"The possibility of studying and rowing in such an organized manner is unique," said Blanda, who is accompanying the Italian team this week as a representative of the Italian Federation Crew. "It's something you usually don't find in Europe."

Blanda spent three years at UW, lettering three times in crew from 1993 to '95 and earning a degree in linguistics. He set a record on the ergometer machine that was only recently broken by current Husky Brett Newlin.

	MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES The Italian men's crew team is made up mostly of college-age kids who may make the Olympic team in 2008.

He later earned a degree from Oxford in educational research and now lives in Rome, working as the head of personnel for a pharmaceutical company.

But Blanda will always feel indebted to Washington, which is why he jumped to action when Huskies crew coach Bob Ernst came calling last winter, asking if he might he able to help get the Italian national team to return to Seattle for this year's Windermere Cup.

The Windermere Cup is designed to feature at least one international crew each year. But finding an international team can be tricky. First there is the fine line between finding a team that is representative — competitive but not overpowering. It's even trickier in an Olympic year when the elite international teams are focused on that competition at the exclusion of almost everything else.

That's where Blanda came in. He's not affiliated with the Italian national team anymore, though he rowed for Italy in the Olympics in 1992 and 1996. But he is the program director for one of the main rowing clubs in Rome — five rowers of the club are likely to be members of this year's Italian Olympic team — and has some influence with Italian coach Giuseppe La Mura, which proved critical.

"He's one tough dude, I'm telling you," Ernst said of La Mura. "He runs that program like Thor. A lot of times you make inquiries to federations about coming, and if you don't have an in, you are stuck because they just get an e-mail and throw it in the recycle bin. But I said 'Hey, Roberto, do you know anybody who can make this happen?' He said, 'Oh, yeah.' ... Roberto was the guy who set this up."

But not without some negotiation. La Mura didn't want to send anyone who might end up on the Olympic team so as not to disrupt their training. Instead, the team competing this weekend is made up mostly of college-age kids who may have a chance at making the Olympic team in 2008.

Asked if this Italian team is as good as the one he was on in 1989 that won the Cup, Blanda quickly shakes his head no.

"Because in 1989, it was the year after the Olympics and we had 3-4 guys who had been on the Olympic team the year before," he said. "Any foreign team you would invite this year would produce a lower-level crew because we are in an Olympic year."

But that's not necessarily the point, either. An international team of any standing adds flavor to the Windermere Cup. And for the international team, it can be an experience to remember forever.

For Blanda, it proved to be life-changing.

And it might be for several members of this year's team, as well. Blanda has been extolling the virtues of his UW experience to the 11 men and 11 women who made the trip, and at least one — Marco Messina of the men's team — is thinking of following in Blanda's footsteps.

Messina, a 20-year-old from Turin, said he marveled at the "system and organization" in place for rowers to compete and go to school at UW.

"It would be good," he said, "to have that same opportunity."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More sports headlines...