Let me tell you what is more fun than watching rowing live at the racecourse:
- Eating a popsicle,
- Inventing German names for nearby plants,
- Throwing pebbles into a lake,
- …
- Racing at Lucerne.
Charles and Banks of course looked the best, and rowed their way to a bronze medal. Not bad, but Charlie looked a bit skinny on the medal stand. I would say that perhaps television makes people appear skinny, but Banks did NOT look skinny. He looked jacked, as expected. Clearly I should cook Charles some heartier food.
All of this excitement convinced me that perhaps I was feeling well enough to wander down to the course for the rest of the racing. This was good, because the only view of Switzerland I’d had for the last many days is the one accompanying this entry. Inspiring? Yes, but not as much as many mountains as I had expected. In fact, it mostly inspired me to get off my feverish ass and head to the racecourse.
Upon arriving at the course, I immediately bumped into two friends from my Cambridge days: The Germans! They are both retired, but had flown in to watch the racing. We chatted and I got the hot gossip from the Cambridge crowd. We watched several races, and before I knew it, the men’s four was coming down the course, with Brett, Guise, Steve, and Cam representing the USA. Hooray! It was a fun race. After being in 5th at one point, Our Courageous Team clawed their way back into contention and passed the Germans for 3rd with only a few meters to go. Not a gold, but not bad considering the line-up change they’d made. I was as excited as my enfeebled body allowed, and my German friends were very, very, sad, though to all appearances they took the bitter sting of defeat quite admirably.
The quad ended up on the wrong side of a barnburner. They were 5th through the first 1000m, and then dominated the 3rd 500m, moving into 3rd position. I was sure they were going to move into 2nd, but Slovenia had a late surge and moved through them on the last stroke. They were 0.03s out of bronze and 0.34s out of silver. Such is the nature of our sport. But it still sucks.
Other notable (USA) races:
The Men’s Eight ended up on the wrong side of their own barnburner, and just missed making the A final. They won the B final. A rather disappointing result for a country so accustomed to performing well in that event. Those guys are tough though, and they’ll regroup and be ready for Poland.
The Men’s 2x placed 4th in the B final. Those guys (Steve Whelpley and Mike Svigny) haven’t raced together internationally yet, so they probably learned a lot in preparation for doubles trials coming up.
The women had a good race in the 2-. We had two boats in that race, Shoop and Caroline coming in 4th just ahead of Mara and Erin. It looked sort of like any other day on Carnegie, but with a bunch of foreigners around getting in the way. Susan Francia was supposed to race with Caroline, but she also got Deathflu, so Shoop must have done a pretty good job filling in.
Ellen and Kalmoe dominated the 2x from start to finish. They are badass and nationwide. AND then they jumped into the quad (due to another illness!) and got a silver there. When I grow up I want to be Ellen.
The women’s eight got silver. Hooray! Overall, two bronzes, two silvers, and a gold for the US. Not too bad.
Anyway, we loaded the boats, returned to the hotel, and went out for an evening of restrained yet amicable socializing with the other teams. I have no exciting stories, of course, since I was still recovering. I did manage to meet up with a favorite (favourite?) Canadian of mine Andrew Byrnes, Ithaca native and general tough guy. I rowed with him in high school, and he is much the same. He’s livin the Maple Leaf Dream, which is very similar to the Standard version but with more Tim Hortons. What fun. Who can fault him?
I can. What a Canapunk.
