Rowers no worse for wear following Seattle divergence

On the road to Athens for this summer's Olympics, they wanted something different. Well, they got it.

"There were 25 mile-an-hour winds, and it was snowing," said Mary Whipple, the coxswain of the U.S. women's eight-oared crew.

"I was wearing my ski goggles just to be able to see."

For the past 10 days in Seattle, the team rowed daily out of the Pocock Rowing Center on Portage Bay. It was designed not only to give America's women rowers a break from their routine at the national training center in Chula Vista, Calif., but to prepare them for just about anything in Greece.

At last year's world-junior championships in Schinias, Greece, near Athens, in a tuneup for the Olympics, the American men's team was swamped by high winds.

"We encountered things we weren't prepared for in Sydney in 2000," said Lianne Nelson, who stroked the U.S. eight there and grew up in Seattle. "And we know Athens isn't going to be nice."

Neither was Seattle as arctic air braced the region. It was not as advertised: Open, ice-free water with mild winter temperatures.

"We had ugly weather, we survived, and are the better for it," said Emil Kossev, an assistant coach for the U.S. team, who is also the head coach of the Pocock Rowing Center.

"Frankly, I was bored in San Diego," said Whipple, who was also the coxswain at Washington. "We're isolated from the public there. Here, in Seattle, you understand that what we are doing is for the U.S., that it isn't just a personal dream.

"Here we're not just some forgotten-about sport. It makes us feel like kids racing again."

Their final row came on flat water and in 50-degree temperatures but even then they could challenge the wakes of commercial traffic in Lake Union, navigate the quirky waters of the Montlake Cut or even head for the expanse and headwinds of Lake Washington.

But there was more to the 10 days than rowing. There was a cross-training, snow-shoeing adventure to Crystal Mountain, a night at a Sonics game, dry-land workouts at the Washington Athletic Club, and those getting-to-know-you chats with the families that provided lodging.

"We'd get to the Pocock Center at 8 o'clock in the morning," said Whipple, "and the masters rowers would just be finishing. They'd done their work before we got started. Let me tell you, it is inspiring."

Corporate and civic support didn't go unnoticed — snow shoes from REI, coffee from Starbucks, free use of the WAC facilities and free tickets to the Sonics game.

The key was the Pocock Rowing Center, now 10 years old and the home year round to walk-in citizens interested in exercising on the water. The center, which cost $1.6 million, was built entirely with donations.

What the walk-ins see are rowers of all ages and statures pulling on rowing machines, or preparing to take to the waters. They also see the shell in which Washington's rowers won the gold medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics hanging from the ceiling. A saying by George Pocock, the great boat maker for whom the center is named, adorns a wall: "Harmony, balance, rhythm. There you have it. That is what life's all about."

The members of the U.S. Olympic team have not been selected yet, but assuredly they will come from the 24 rowers who were in Seattle, among them Washington grads Whipple and Anna Mickelson , of Bellevue, Seattle's Nelson, Stanwood's Sarah Jones, and Sarah Hirst and Julie Nichols, who row for the Pocock center.

The American women won the world championships in 2002 in the eight, with Whipple and Mickelson , who is from Bellevue, in the boat.

With similar hopes last year, they saw the shell come to a shuttering halt as one of the oars was stuck in the water, what rowers call "catching a crab."

"We were shocked," said Whipple. "I immediately looked for the boat we could beat. We had to finish fifth (in the six team race) to qualify our boat for the Olympics. For a moment we were like deer in the headlights, then we took off and in 10 strokes had caught the boat we needed to catch."

The Pocock Rowing Center wants to be a place where national crews regularly spend time in winter.

"I know the men's national coach (Mike Teti) real well," said Bruce Beall, a former UW rower and 1984 Olympian who directs the center, "and I'm sure I will be hearing from him.

"I thought it was amazing the work the women got in. In Chula Vista, they have to turn around after a mile and a half. Here they can row forever."

As long as they don't forget their chains.

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com