Ursula & Abby lw2x for USA

[MChase]

Funding is always an issue. Here are some excerpts:

From the USRA JNT ID camp document:
The cost for the camp is $50 and is paid during the registration process via Regatta Central. The link to Regatta Central can be found on the left border.
All participants must be current members of USRowing, have a current liability waiver on file, and have a birth year between 1993 and 1997. Please check these requirements with our membership department BEFORE camp.

From the JNT Selection Camp document: (Costs shown for sculling camp, but not for sweep, but presumably the same):
Invitations: Begin 5/1
Camp Dates: Phase I, June 13 - June 26, 2011
Location: GMS Rowing Center, New Milford, CT
Camp Cost: $1400

From the Junior Worlds development team document:
The 2012 Jr Worlds Development Team cost will be $2,000. This fee includes all expenses for the entire time from the conclusion of Selection Camp until back in the US upon return from Berlin. The fee includes room and board, coaching, equipment rental, transportation (RT flight and local transportation), and uniforms.


From the JNT World Championships selection document:
FUNDING:
USRowing will not be able to provide funding for the Junior National Teams and the Junior
World Championships in 2010. The team may derive funding from other sources including the
National Rowing Foundation, team fund-raising efforts, and self-funding. For trials boats, a fee
for local travel and housing costs at World Championship must be submitted by trials winners
for the athlete(s) and coach at the conclusion of trials, and no later than June 26, 2010 in USD.
In the case of the W2- and M2- funds must be submitted by trials winners for the athlete(s) and
coach at the conclusion of trials, and no later than July 8, 2010 in USD. Bank check, cash and
VISA or MasterCard are accepted forms of payment. Trials winners are responsible for their own
arrangements and costs for overseas airfare to and from the Junior World Championships. Boat
rental is not included in the estimated cost.

[Arch]

I believe all the boats are planned to be selection camp boats this year at junior worlds, so things may be changing. There have been boats sent in the past containing rowers who were B finalists in thin events at nationals. The general trend is towards better ID with the best J17s from selection and development camp forming the High Performance Group and competing in Germany while the JNT is at worlds. However, there's nothing anyone at USRowing could put in place to stop every top junior going into the college system. The trick is to make the college system work better for development.

[SwissSculler]

Athlete identification is left in the US to Colleges.

Colleges are actually very good at that. We have more U23-worthy athletes at Virginia (a club) than in all of Switzerland for example - but we are still working on developing them as rowers. Here they learn to row both sides as well as sculling.

Challenge: get college coaches to have an active interest in developing U23 and senior athletes out of their group. I will not go on the record why that is a struggle but I know it is neither US Rowing's fault nor a matter of funding - these are excuses. The senior team on the other hand (and having athletes train full-time all year around) is a different matter in regards to lack of funding.

[crewu]

Forty Five Pages for an event and athlete who haven't medalled in an Olympic class event in how long??? I could see a debate about the defending Olympic Gold Medalist Women's Eight, but for an event without an established medal winning team??? All the world must be laughing until they risk hernias.

This is akin to a 45 page thread debating the 10th place Pac10 women's basketball team.

Well, I'm finished for this thread. Abby has quit and I doubt Ursula will make the USA lw2X this year. We will likely see her at worlds in either the single or the lw4X. Probably a decent medal chance in either boat.

zzzZZZZZ.

[mtngrl]

Carlos was right when he said it was time to close this thread (pg 42).

[bulldog]

Well, I'm finished for this thread. Abby has quit and I doubt Ursula will make the USA lw2X this year. We will likely see her at worlds in either the single or the lw4X. Probably a decent medal chance in either boat.

nah, i say she still makes the lw2x but they don't really finish significantly better at worlds, if at all. and for all the people screaming to close the thread, go ahead and explain to us how because the discussion is no longer to your particular taste, no one should be allowed to talk about it...

Forty Five Pages for an event and athlete who haven't medalled in an Olympic class event in how long??? I could see a debate about the defending Olympic Gold Medalist Women's Eight, but for an event without an established medal winning team??? All the world must be laughing until they risk hernias.

This is akin to a 45 page thread debating the 10th place Pac10 women's basketball team.

this is a juvenile, overly simplistic view to say the least. this thread was clearly NOT just about 1 particular entry, but rather an unusual set of circumstances, athletes, and coaches working literally from scratch, outside the American rowing system to great success and in the process highlighting many of the the country's flaws when developing elite athletes.

[Stewie Griffin Should Cox]

Bulldog, its not really outside the American rowing system because the way they existed and were selected IS the American rowing system, whether supporting or now it is the system of selection. But I get what you mean.

If the right boat manages to fight its way to the surface, I think your worlds prediction will be wrong. I DO think that early season results may not refelect last year but those results really didn't mean anything in the end. A slower start and a faster finish to the season would work very nicely.

Here's what I don't understand however. From what I hear, OKL is becoming what athletes in the US crave for and complain they don't have. A high performance center with great facilities and support medically, physios, etc. Etc.

Now so its not everyones favorite part of America, but nor is Dorney' or Caversham every Brits favorite place or continually flat. Effectively the Brits are required to be there, a point lost on many who look at their funding enviously.

If an athlete is truely committed to getting a medal in London then for me, the inconvenience of not being near home etc, and training everyday with equally motivated people is a required.

[Grover]

Have to disagree about dorney..all my friends love training there and if not there then at longridge..Caversham though..you are spot on

OKL has a great boat house from what i have heard, medical, accommodation however the water is not great with it being in the tornado belt, you rarely get too many nice flat days with little wind strung together. Combined with all the bridges and bends

But i guess its no different to training on the tideway except without the infrastructure of london

[SamG]

This thread cries out for a bit of perspective.

Ursula and Abby under Carlos coaching go a worlds silver and a seventh on Carlos and Ursulas first worlds, just missing out on the LW2x finl in a tough semi. Not too bad for a first up athlete and coach, and it gives them something to build on.

[fatsculler]

I think the reason they have received so much "abuse" is the arrogant nature of their campaign leading up to the Worlds, almost the assumption that they were the best in the world and were unlucky to lose (I seem to recall a comment from the team that "even the best lose") a little humility and respect for their opposition would have smoothed a few ruffled feathers. Plus I go back to the LW2x semi and how their technique (especially Ursula's) disintegrated when they came under pressure. If they can improve their technique then they could be A final material. But at this stage i do not think they are medal quality.

[crewu]

I guess now that Abby is back and the two are relevant again after winning their time trial means we should start chatting about them again. Who will they pick as their coach if the win the selection regatta?

[The Dude]

They will pick their current coach, John Parker.

[crewu]

Is that permissable, given recent events?

[The Dude]

He was coaching them in OKC even after his employment status changed. He is coaching them at the NSR. He'll be on the same payment plan as Carlos--aka nothing.

[SnowmanCA]

Have to disagree about dorney..all my friends love training there and if not there then at longridge..Caversham though..you are spot on

OKL has a great boat house from what i have heard, medical, accommodation however the water is not great with it being in the tornado belt, you rarely get too many nice flat days with little wind strung together. Combined with all the bridges and bends

But i guess its no different to training on the tideway except without the infrastructure of london

While I am not rowing at an elite level, their has only been like two bad days in the last month which were due to heavy rain not wind and I stay on the 2500M-ish strait channel unless I am in a kayak that day.