London Olympics

Post # 100

Oakland, California - I've always said that one of the things I love most about rowing is surprising myself.  Achieving things that I didn't think were possible keeps the sport exciting and keeps me coming back for more.  In this 100th post on my ITA blog, I could not be happier to have surprised myself and achieved my dream of making the Olympic team.


Thinking back to our race in the final, all the countries were extremely fast and aggressive right from the start.  When I looked across to give Julie updates on where we were compared to everyone else, it was often too close to call.  We both knew it was going to be an absolute fight to the line.  I looked over with about 10 strokes to go and saw that we were only inches ahead of GB and Denmark in lanes five and six.  Our top four requirement to make the Olympic team came down to the last stroke of the race.

The scene with about 5-10 strokes to go.  China, NZ, and Greece are up (on the left), we're in the foreground, and GB and Denmark are in the background, fighting it out with us.

We crossed the finish line and I just kept saying to Julie, "I don't know, I don't know if we got it." We stared at the jumbotron, waiting for the results, and when they finally came up and we saw that we did it, it was just pure joy.  I don't think you've ever seen two people so happy to get fourth place. It was only after we did a cool down and were back on land that we realized just how close it was - we grabbed fourth place by just 0.09 seconds over fifth.

Waiting to see this at the finish line

The video of the race is here (I realize the link in the previous post didn't work in the US, whoops) which is also posted in the "Media & Links" tab. 

The cool down: "Did that really just happen?!"

Now we're back in California and back to work.  Getting back into our normal training routine feels good, especially after so many races (each of which were just a couple weeks apart).  The fact that we're going to the Olympics hasn't quite hit me yet, and I don't think it will for another few days or maybe a couple weeks.  It still feels like a dream.  Regardless, our only plans between now and London are to get as fast as we can, day by day, stroke by stroke. 

Big congrats to the US Women's eight, who grabbed gold by an even tighter margin than ours: 0.03 seconds over Canada.  Talk about a photo finish! The US women's pair won silver and the women's quad won bronze to cap off a great day of racing.

I am extremely excited to cheer on the other ITA summer athletes as they progress toward Olympic qualification.  Former ITA athlete Sara Groff will be there in the triathalon, and my hope is that we'll have even more ITA-ers representing the US in London.

LONDON BOUND!!!

Post # 99

Luzern, Switzerland - Fourth in the final today was good enough to earn us a spot on the London Olympic team.  Wow. I can't even believe that as I type it.  It has been a great, great day.  Lots to do still (packing, packing, packing) but here is some info in the mean time.  More to come later!

- Results sheet - 4th place by 0.09 (yikes) and less than four seconds separating first through sixth
- Video of the race
- "Nichols and Hedstrom Qualify for London" USRowing's press release
- Full World Rowing report "China, New Zealand and Greece all looked happy at the medals presentation. But perhaps the happiest crew was fourth-placed United States. Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols of the United States needed to finish fourth to secure their rights to being the Olympic crew. They had not managed to do it in Belgrade, but they did it today on the waters of the Rotsee."

World Cup II: On to the Final

Post # 98

Luzern, Switzerland - Ok, it's finals time. We placed second in our rep today to advance and will be lining up against Greece, New Zealand, Denmark, Great Britain, and China1 for a shot at the medals tomorrow.  The race goes off at 11:27 am local time - that's 5:27 am on the east coast, 4:27 am in Madison and, uh, the middle of the night in California.  There should be live video streaming for the finals, and for details on that you can head over to World Rowing.

The women's pair, quad and eight will also be racing for medals tomorrow.  Here's the full report from USRowing.  Go USA!

World Cup II Heats: Fast and Furious

Post # 97

Luzern, Switzerland - Day 1 is complete here in Lucerne and it was an exciting one.  Six World Records were broken today, one of which was in our event, the LW2x.  Congrats to New Zealand, who won the heat with a new world best time of 6:49.43.  This shaves about 0.3 seconds off of the old record that has stood since 2006.  One of the other records was broken by the US in the women's 8 by over a second!

As you can imagine, conditions were fast and furious. A tailwind pushed us down the course from start to finish.  We placed third in our heat and are headed to tomorrow's reps.  We'll be sitting on the starting line with Argentina, Japan, and two crews from China.  The race goes off at 2:58 local time and the top two crews advance to the A Final.  That's (surprisingly!) not a ridiculous hour of day in the US; it's 8:58 am on the east coast, 7:58 in Madison, and 5:58 am in California.  Here's the live race viewer and the results will be here.  Good luck to all the US crews racing tomorrow!

World Cup II

Post # 96

Luzern, Switzerland - Racing begins tomorrow here in Luzern.  Here is the full schedule/rundown:

Friday May 25: Heats. Winner goes directly to Final A, the rest to reps.

Saturday May 26: Reps. Top 2 to Final A, the rest to Final B.

Sunday May 27: Finals

Tomorrow's heat has us up against GB, Brazil, China 2, New Zealand, and Canada at 12:23 pm.  That's 6:23 am on the east coast, 5:23 am in Madison, and 3:23 am in California.  Here's the full schedule of tomorrow's racing.  Results will be posting here, along with live splits and audio feed from the course. 

The Final Olympic Qualification Regatta wrapped up yesterday and Team USA grabbed spots in four more events at the Olympics.  Huge congrats to the women's double, lightweight men's four, Gevvie in the women's single, and all the guys in the men's 8.  These athletes are the first ones to be named to the Olympic rowing team.  How awesome is that?

This Week: World Cup II

Post # 95

Luzern, Switzerland - Wow, the past two weeks have flown by. When we were deep in winter training, it felt like time was moving really slowly as we put in the hours of training every day.  Now that the spring/summer racing season is in full swing, it feels like life is in fast-forward.  Somehow we are already gearing up for World Cup II.

Since the first World Cup, we've been living and training in Europe and it has been great.  I sometimes think I could stay here forever.  How can you not when this is the view out your room every day?

World Cup II will be in Lucerne, Switzerland this Friday through Sunday (May 25-27).  Entries are up and we will face 11 other crews.  Five of them are ones we already faced in Belgrade and then there are  several new combinations we've never raced before.  I'm excited to see how we've progressed since the last World Cup and what kind of speed we can produce.

Part of the US heavyweight women's team is coming down from a training camp in Germany to race at the World Cup as well.  With the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta (for the non-qualified boat classes) also being held in Lucerne this week, a good chunk of Team USA is here.  Follow along with the racing at WorldRowing.com or facebook.com/WorldRowing.

More to come this week; stay tuned!

World Cup I in the Books

Post # 94

Belgrade, Serbia - We wrapped up World Cup I on Sunday with a sixth place finish in the final.  The race was tight and fast; only five seconds separated all six boats at the finish line.  All credit to the 2011 World Champion Greeks, who, after getting beat in Friday's heats, came back to win the final.

 Saturday's rep.  Photo credit: Row2k.com

We did not achieve the fourth place finish that would've pre-qualified us for the Olympic team, but that's just fine.  We're only going to get sharper and quicker from here. It's races like these - ones where you look across and see a tight pack of boats for the majority of the race - that teach you how to handle situations and be better prepared for future races.  

Big congrats to USA's truck and arms mixed double, whose performance in Belgrade this weekend earned them a qualifying spot at the 2012 Paralympics! Also congrats to the USA women's pairs, who nabbed a silver and a bronze in the final.  

World Cup I: On to the Final

Post #93

Belgrade, Serbia - We came second in our repechage today and have therefore qualified through to tomorrow's A final!

Backing into the starting gates for the heat. Photo credit: Row2k.com

We'll race the final at 11:43 am, which is 5:43 am on the east coast.  We'll be in lane 1, racing Greece, Great Britain, China, Denmark and the Netherlands.  Racing video will be live online (link for the US only) and results will also be posting live.  Go USA!

World Cup I: Summer Racing Begins

Post #92

Belgrade, Serbia - Ok, not quite summer racing.  It's only May after all. But this World Cup opens the international racing season and it's exciting to be back. We've seen many familiar faces so far: teammates, friends, competitors, people who helped us with this or that at last year's World Cups, etc.  One of the most exciting reunions was with Iva, the Serbian single sculler.  She went to Cal and was one of our training partners in early 2011.  It's been fun to see her out during practice on her home course.

 Race course on Sava Lake

Racing starts tomorrow and we're ready to go.  We have twelve entries in our event, which is much less than normal for World Cups.  It's a pretty even split between crews that have remained the same from last year and new combinations that are being tested ahead of the Olympics. The draw for tomorrow's heats has us up against Austria, China, the Netherlands, and two crews from Great Britain.  All of the information can be found on the regatta's main site, including links (along the top bar) to entries, results, and the live race viewer (Sunday finals only).  The winner of each heat advances directly to Sunday's A final. Everyone else will go through Saturday's repechage to try to qualify for the A final.

St. Sava Temple in downtown Belgrade

Downtown Belgrade

Row2k continues to do an amazing job of navigating the maze of Olympic selection for each crew; here is their updated "next steps" explanation. The latest super exciting news is that two of my fellow Badger rowing alums, Ross and Grant James, have been named to the men's 8 that will compete in Lucerne later this month.  They will have to win that race to qualify for the Olympics, which I have no doubt they are capable of.