From Exhaustion To Elation, Mccagg Twins Keep Rowing

WITH A DEEP passion for rowing, Seattle's McCagg twins have recovered from near burnout to post performances so impressive that a gold medal could be within their reach.

Betsy McCagg wore her sharpest suit and her best attitude to a job interview last spring.

The English degree from Harvard didn't hurt. Eventually she was asked about her job experience.

"I rowed all year," she told the interviewer.

And what had she done besides row?

"Most of the time I was unconscious because I was so tired," was the only answer McCagg could come up with.

McCagg did not get the job. Once more she had "put off real life," all for a seven-minute rush called victory.

"You go through hell, train all year, to go through it again," McCagg said, explaining the life of a world-class rower. "And after a day of torture, you realize there's 1,200 more days left just like that one."

Misery loves company

Proving misery loves company is McCagg's identical twin sister Mary, older by 10 minutes. The 6-foot-2 sisters turned 26 last April, becoming the oldest members of the U.S. National Women's Sweep Team, the name given to the eight-woman crew.

"We thought that would be it after the (1992 Barcelona) Olympics," Mary said. "Our parents probably hoped we would be doing something different. But I didn't want to leave something I loved on a negative note."

The American boat finished sixth, urging the twins to come

back for another try in four years. Early signs indicate the McCaggs' patience will be rewarded.

The McCaggs were at home in Seattle last week, a chance to relax and savor the medals they won earlier this month at the World Rowing Championships in the Czech Republic. The sisters won a bronze in the pairs race and helped the eight-woman boat win a silver. It was the the U.S. women's best showing in any international competition.

The World Rowing Championships are in Indianapolis next year, the first time it's been in the U.S. The goal is for a gold medal to find its way into American hands for the first time.

That, they say, will give them enough motivation to train for two more years and compete in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Not a bad recovery for two rowers on the brink of total burnout last November.

The sisters, who rowed for Harvard from 1985 to 1989 (as their father and grandfather had done) and for the U.S. National Team since 1990, did not want to face another practice at dawn. They got tired of telling old friends who had moved on and gotten jobs on Wall Street that they were "still rowing," tired of hearing rowing was a waste of a Harvard education. They wanted a real life that rowing could not provide.

Compromise found

They settled on a compromise - rowing plus a job that they could actually put on a resume. Mary works for a large insurance company. Betsy is still looking. They have to live and work in Chattanooga, Tenn., home of the team's new training center, the Lookout Rowing Club. The team moved from Boston to Chattanooga last March because the climate was more similar to Atlanta's, because the boat traffic was more agreeable on the Tennessee River and the city was supportive of the team's efforts.

Living is relatively humble for the sisters, despite rowing's reputation as a sport of the elite. Mary and coxswain Yaz Farooq have taken a step to change the sport's "rich, white Ivy League men" image. Before the move to Chattanooga last year, with help from a friend, they introduced rowing into the inner-city neighborhoods and housing projects of Boston. McCagg called their effort "Yo! Row." They hauled rowing machines into the projects to get kids interested in the sport. It worked well enough to put together two boats of eight.

Moving to Chattanooga was a bit of a culture shock. The sisters had hoped to live in either Boston, where they attended college, or Seattle, where they grew up and attended Lakeside High School.

"We're taking it a year at a time," Mary said. "We've been on the team for a long time. The coach knows where we stand. So if we're unhappy we can talk to him about it. Before we would have been too nervous to say anything."

The team has received vigorous support from corporate sponsors. The team's sponsor is holding a pairs race in Hamilton, Ohio, next weekend, in which the eight rowers pair off. The rowers who win the most races will receive the most sponsorship money. This dash for dollars could net the McCagg sisters as much as $3,000 each.

A commitment to the women's rowing program also brought Hartmut Buschbacher to Chattanooga in January, 1991. The former coach of the East German team, Buschbacher, 35, is a full-time, professional coach. The team had formerly been led by a revolving door rotation of part-time coaches.

Buschbacher talked of taking on the job during the Goodwill Games in Seattle. His East German women's eight had won gold in the 1988 Olympics and then won gold in Seattle.

"I considered it a great challenge," he said of the U.S. team. "And it was a very good offer. I liked Seattle very much, too. Later on we looked at it for a training site. But it was too busy for what we want to do for Olympic preparation. Too many yachts, ships - too much traffic on the water."

Better funding and Buschbacher's training methods seem to have already yielded results. Buschbacher's workouts are torturous, the McCaggs said. When rowers say their maximum heart rate is 180 beats per minute, Buschbacher insists they can reach 210.

"He's very strong-willed which is what the program needs," said Jan Harville, the women's crew coach at the University of Washington. Harville also is an assistant coach for the U.S. National Team and a believer in Buschbacher.

"At the beginning I think he ruffled some feathers. But he's given the team strong leadership. I have a lot of respect for him."

Buschbacher's methods did not sit well with the older rowers, who are no longer on the team. The team's current rowers, fresh out of college except for the McCaggs, don't know any differently.

"I don't think the workouts are hard," Buschbacher insists. "They are necessary to have a good performance level. It is more an athlete getting used to it, feeling confident. If your goal is a gold medal, these workouts are something you must do, or someone else will."

Coaching from a distance

Buschbacher, the McCaggs said, keeps his distance from the rowers and maintains a professional relationship. In the past, coaches were friends which made things touchy when it came to cutting women from the team. Mary was once cut from a national team because the coach did not want to keep Betsy, but thought it would be too hard on them to keep just one.

Buschbacher would never make such a decision, Betsy said. The coach readily agrees.

"I will do what is best for the team," he said.

The sisters do rely on each other. If not for her sister, Betsy said she would have quit after the '92 Games. Mary said the same. Alone, they couldn't bear the thought of four more years. Together, they could try.

"They are a good match together," Buschbacher said.

Mary is the den mother of the team, Betsy said. Mary is the one who reminds everyone to sleep, to eat, to concentrate, to tie their shoes.

Which made it all the odder that Mary fell on slippery pavement because she didn't have her shoes tied, minutes before the World Championship race. Her swollen knee and cut hand had to be hidden from Buschbacher. Despite the injury, Mary helped row the team to a silver.

Betsy, Mary said, keeps her relaxed, keeps her from taking rowing and life too seriously.

"Sometimes when we're out on the boat we'll get into huge fights," Betsy said. "With anyone but your sister, you would hold a huge grudge. But with us, we're joking around by the time we get off the water."

Said Mary: "Having a sister on the team means that no matter what happens there's always someone on the team you know is in your corner."