RowingRelated

Following Lucerne, the GB squad is hard at work at high altitude, making their final preparations for the world championships in Silvretta. While it's more work than play, there's never a wrong time for a bit of banter, and double Olympic champion Pete Reed is kicking off the new quadrennium right with an 'epic' trailer for an upcoming feature on training in the Alps. With reviews like, "This is actually pretty good," and a soundtrack straight out of a Steven Spielberg film, let's just say this trailer has us on pins and needles for the real thing. U23s are in the books, and, looking at the results alongside the World Rowing Cup series, there appear to be two international rowing powers on the rise in 2013: New Zealand and the United States . Both squads have shown tremendous top-end speed, as well as depth, over the summer thus far, and the future is looking bright with a view toward Rio. As the official site of Rowing New Zealand pointed out follo...

The World Rowing Under 23 Championships drew to a close on Sunday in Linz, Austria, and saw a number of familiar faces back on the podium once again this year, including lightweight standout Andrew Campbell , who took his first international gold medal in the BLM1x. The U.S. women's eight did not disappoint, with returners Madison Culp , Amanda Elmore , Kristine O'Brien , and coxswain Kendall Schmidt making it two golds in two years at the U23 level, and the U.S. men's eight took the long road through the rep en route to a 'sterling' performance in the A Final. Also in the men's eight A Final was Team GB, with a crew that included four of the athletes from this week's video—stroke George Rossiter (a two-time U23 bronze medalist in the BM8+ and BM4- in 2011 and 2012, respectively), Sam Arnot (silver in the JM8+ in 2009), Thomas Ford , and Timothy Clarke . The Newcastle crew raced to the semifinals at Henley Royal Regatta earlier this month, before losing ...

Johnson on the water (Image courtesy of Andrew Johnson) Five-time U.S. national team member and 2012 Paralympian Andrew Johnson has set the bar high in his first 23 years. Born blind, Johnson has been nothing short of a visionary when it comes to pushing himself to new and greater heights, including hiking to the top of Machu Picchu while in high school, and building on a strong early foundation in rowing to reach the Paralympics last year. Here, we catch up with Andrew on his athletic background, what motivates him, and his personal highlights to date in his young, but already well decorated, racing career. RR: Looking over your bio, you’ve accomplished some pretty impressive things at the ripe old age of 23. How did you get into rowing, and what was it that grabbed you about it from the beginning? AJ: I think the main draw for me, the thing that got me into rowing, was that it was a sport that I could do with all my friends. There are a lot of blind-friendly sports, but in...

The World Rowing Under-23 Championships are just hours away, and the athletes and coaches from rowing federations the world over are gathered in Linz, Austria for five days of hard fought racing. The U.S. roster was released last week , and includes a number of college standouts and future prospects, among them Harvard's lightweight phenom Andrew Campbell (racing in the LM1x), and Stanford-bound Ruth Narode (who earned a silver in the U.S. junior women's four in Plovdiv, Bulgaria last year, and won the U23 Hammer at Crash-Bs earlier this year), joined by four athletes who won gold in the BW8+ last year in Trakai (Washington's Madison Culp , Amanda Elmore of Purdue, Virginia's Kristine O'Brien , and Wisco's Kendall Schmidt ). The racing gets started on Wednesday, 24 July. For complete results, the FISA live race tracker, and more, visit the official site of World Rowing . Want to suggest the next 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrel...

Lucerne skies (Photo: B. Kitch) Following the 2012 Olympic Games, there were significant changes to the structure and the personnel at USRowing, with the departure of Tim McLaren , and the subsequent hiring of Curtis Jordan and Luke McGee adding new blood to the system at the outset of a new quadrennium. At the time, we questioned the addition of a second high performance director, but lauded the hiring of McGee, given his track record of success at the college level and personal understanding of what it takes to be a national team oarsman. Also, while Bryan Volpenhein had taken his lightweight four through the qualifiers and to the Olympic Regatta, making the transition to one of the marquee events on the heavyweight side would be no easy task. Fortunately for those of us stateside, however, the two-time Olympic medalist showed, in no uncertain terms, that he was ready to take it on. The lead-up to London was often fraught with controversy for the U.S. men's squad, as t...

This week's videos come to us from the Rotsee thanks to the hard work of two-time GB Olympic medalist Martin Cross , who was in the middle of the action as crews came off the water in Lucerne. The first of these interviews is with 2012 bronze medalist Henrik Rummel , following the win for the U.S. men's four—a lineup that also included Syracuse alum Mike Gennaro , former UC Davis Aggie Seth Weil , and 2012 Olympian in the men's eight, Grant James . While the crew enjoyed the win, clearly, they're keeping it all in perspective.

The United States has made quite an impression on the international stage in the early going at World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, winning heats in the men's eight, men's four, and women's lightweight double—all in the fastest qualifying times—and with further solid performances from John Graves in the men's single (earning his way into the A/B Semifinals through the reps), the men's quad, and the men's lightweight four (which also earned a trip to the A/B Semi, winning the second of two reps). The men's eight made a statement with a wire-to-wire victory over the heretofore undefeated GB men's crew chock full of 2012 Olympic medalists, sending them to the reps—the American crew isn't short of 2012 Olympians, either, with Ross James , Steve Kasprzyk , Glenn Ochal , Tom Peszek , and coxswain Zach Vlahos on board. The women's double event saw two U.S. crews progress directly to the A Final, with 2012 bronze medalists Megan Kalmoe and Andrienne Ma...

The final day of this year's Henley Royal Regatta featured some outstanding match-ups, as well as blistering times, as some of the best crews in the world laid it all on the line for those coveted little red boxes. And, as is the case every year at Henley-on-Thames, there were a number of extremely close contests—tremendous battles that saw crews hang on to narrow margins, or walk through early leaders to edge opponents at the line. Let's take a look, shall we? As we expected, the final of the women's single pitted defending Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova against standout Kiwi sculler Emma Twigg . This time, Knapkova, who finished fourth just back of Twigg at the Holland Beker Regatta the previous weekend, walked away to victory—the Czech sculler equaled the course record for the event, despite winning by the verdict, 'Easily.' Quite an impressive result for Knapkova, and one that will no doubt get the attention of Holland Beker champion Kim Crow of Australia...

The above gallery includes our favorites from the RR Flat Water Tuesday Photo Contest —a beautiful collection of images! A huge thanks to St. Martin's Press, and all those who participated! Winners: we'll be in touch shortly via email to sort out the logistics. If you'd like to read more about Flat Water Tuesday , here's what people are saying on Goodreads . (Mobile users: Click here to view the photo set on Flickr.) And, what better time to celebrate the beauty of rowing than following what is arguably the most prestigious rowing race in the world, Henley Royal Regatta —itself certainly not short on stunning scenery (on and off the water)! This year's Henley included some of the most remarkable match-ups, and edge-of-your-seat races, of the 2013 season, not least of which were the two finals that pitted U.S. collegiate varsity crews against GB squad entries. Much more on that to come very shortly. -RR

The Washington Huskies stepped up to the plate in a major way at this year's Henley Royal Regatta , picking up where Brown left off last year in the Grand Challenge Cup . (The above video provides a little background on the Husky boat at Henley.) While this year's field may be smaller than the last time round, the Huskies faced no small task on Saturday—between Washington and the final stood the Polish men's eight that had raced the Olympics in London (the same athletes, albeit in a slightly different arrangement), and which just took silver at the second World Rowing Cup at Eton Dorney. Despite the considerable pedigree of the Poles, Washington led from start to finish, edging out to an open water lead in the later stages of the race, and perhaps giving the GB crew (Leander Club & Molesey B.C.) something to think about for tomorrow's Grand Challenge Final. Also, we'd be remiss not to mention that the Northeastern men will be facing another GB crew in ...

Henley Royal Regatta is in full swing, with two days of great racing already in the books, and the field already greatly reduced, or at least transformed from lycra-clad rowers to bespoke blazer-donning spectators in the regatta enclosures. As with any Henley, there have been a number of surprises in the early going, not least of which has been the University of Virginia's progress through the first two rounds, recording 'Easily' verdicts in both cases on the way to their matchup with the Harvard frosh tomorrow—it should be an interesting race to watch! Molesey Boat Club has also been a force thus far in the regatta, with crews in the Visitors, Thames, and Brit Cup all moving on to Friday. Follow along with all the action live via Regatta Radio and the official website of Henley Royal Regatta (l ive results feed or Twitter stream ). Also, check out a huge collection of HRR images , thanks to Rowing Photography UK's Iain Weir. In the midst of all this Henley m...

The Stewards' (Photo: B. Kitch) You've been waiting patiently, and now, they're finally here: our picks and predictions for the 2013 Henley Royal Regatta! The draw is out, and the racing begins tomorrow—here are our thoughts on the top crews to look out for this week on the Thames. Open Events In contrast to the commonly held order of events, we are going to start with the single sculls competitions that look likely to provide some of the highlights of this year’s events.  The adage that ‘styles make fights’ looks appropriate here, as we are lucky to have the fast starting Bozhilov, the smoothness of Julian Bahain from the French M2x, the legendary figure of Luka Spik, the high rating Joe Sullivan from the Olympic Champion NZ M2x—and that is before even mentioning two of the three Olympic medallists from London in the form of Mahe Drysdale and Alan Campbell!  The racing in this event from Friday onwards should not be missed…  The prospective final between Mirka Kna...

This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland.  As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just ove...