Ursula & Abby lw2x for USA

[crewu]

Stewie, how on earth do you think you can have it both ways? It was the obvious absence of serious USRowing interest in the lightweight women that made Carlos' attempts so commendable. Sure he had his failures - he stepped up and admitted them and paid the price. But his rookie year results blasted away McLaren's first year results in the US and how does Parker still have a national team job?

You talk about four world championship silver medallists being "Carlossed" and now predict they will all go "balls-up" under the supervision of USRowing because the NGB has not brought the best of the lightweight women together - something that Carlos was able to do far more successfully.

Personally, I think the lightweight women are crazy not to be back in Seattle building on both the successes and lessons learned of 2010. How many world championship medals has Oklahoma City produced in any class of rowing? I'm not sure Ursula is even a certainty to make a US boat if she sticks around there.

[ltwtsculler91]

I'm not sure Ursula is even a certainty to make a US boat if she sticks around there.

an why should she be a certainty?
sure she owns the 2k ergo record, but that doesnt mean she should for sure be in a boat. there are plenty of other extremely fast lightweight women in this country that potentially could form a faster combo than one with Ursula, which is one of the problems many of us saw with the carlos camp, he was so committed to her and winning with HER it could potentially be destructive and limit making the fastest boat.

who knows maybe in 2012 the fastest 2 lights are current U23s or other younger girls we havent heard of, or maybe we see a goldsack/sarbanis double that kills everyone

theres still time a lot of fast players out there in the light womens field

[Stewie Griffin Should Cox]

You continually miss the point here Crewu.

Personally, I think the lightweight women are crazy not to be back in Seattle

There therefore must be reasons why THEY made the decision not to be. Not me, not Wolf, not you.

an why should she be a certainty?

Shes the last person i suspect who thinks she should be a certainty. But its a shame there is not a system that puts all the athletes with an even chance to make the fastest boat possible while being together in an enviroment which is "balanced" in many ways. Yes I know this won't happen

[Long'n Strong]

We will see a world-class field at NSR 2

[Stewie Griffin Should Cox]

We will see a world-class field at NSR 2

Perhaps

But can you guarantee the boat that wins will be the fastest possible combination possible? Or frankly, anywhere close?

I'm not sure. And without that, the boat will qualify but not medal.

[Long'n Strong]

We will see a world-class field at NSR 2

Perhaps

But can you guarantee the boat that wins will be the fastest possible combination possible? Or frankly, anywhere close?

I'm not sure. And without that, the boat will qualify but not medal.

No. But the fastest double will win, and will qualify for this year's worlds, and probably qualify the boat for 2012. That's the best that can be expected until USRowing realizes that an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal, regardless of the gender or size of its winners, and starts to support the athletes.

[caustic]

Thank you Crewu for your opinion. The big difference is that Tim Mclaren is an olympic silver medallist himself who has coached crews to world championship and olympic medals for many years in Australia. His track record is great and his coaching/tactical nous are exceptional. Don't confuse a non result for a crew with the coach's ability in this case.

I can think of a few notable coaches who had almost non-existant rowing pedigrees, or at least lackluster on the elite stage, yet they went on to coach multiple olympic medalling crews and world champions. Don't confuse athletic prowess with understanding of rowing, or of coaching talent.

[Long'n Strong]

Thank you Crewu for your opinion. The big difference is that Tim Mclaren is an olympic silver medallist himself who has coached crews to world championship and olympic medals for many years in Australia. His track record is great and his coaching/tactical nous are exceptional. Don't confuse a non result for a crew with the coach's ability in this case.

I can think of a few notable coaches who had almost non-existant rowing pedigrees, or at least lackluster on the elite stage, yet they went on to coach multiple olympic medalling crews and world champions. Don't confuse athletic prowess with understanding of rowing, or of coaching talent.

I wonder - did you ever ride the coaching launch with Carlos? Or with Tim? Have you ever seen one of Tim's successful Australian, British or American crews rowing or racing?

[GDI]

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.

[KiwiCanuck]

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, it IS actually amusing...

[crewu]

Have you ever seen one of Tim's successful Australian, British or American crews rowing or racing?

I have not seen any of Tim's successful British or American crews. Are there any?

[Stewie Griffin Should Cox]

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, it IS actually amusing...

But just as Afganistan is just the battlefield for the US v Al Qaida, this debate for me as a non American represents a focal point for all that is broken about US Rowing. So although the players maybe Carlos or Ursula etc. It really represents the reason behind why pretty much, the US way under performs on the world stage

All the pieces are represented. Lack of athlete support, lack of coach education, in ability to produce the fastest boat, Private armies without the experience to execute, funding restricted to outstanding athletes or potential medal boats due to simply the baot type.

Yes the worlds laughing for sure, but they are not laughing at this thread, they are laughing at USA seeing the USA continually waste talent and underperform despite having the biggest athlete pool by some considerable margin.

[ltwtsculler91]

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, it IS actually amusing...

But just as Afganistan is just the battlefield for the US v Al Qaida, this debate for me as a non American represents a focal point for all that is broken about US Rowing. So although the players maybe Carlos or Ursula etc. It really represents the reason behind why pretty much, the US way under performs on the world stage

All the pieces are represented. Lack of athlete support, lack of coach education, in ability to produce the fastest boat, Private armies without the experience to execute, funding restricted to outstanding athletes or potential medal boats due to simply the baot type.

Yes the worlds laughing for sure, but they are not laughing at this thread, they are laughing at USA seeing the USA continually waste talent and underperform despite having the biggest athlete pool by some considerable margin.

Did you see the mike teti interview in the last rowing news? He hits on this exactly. Facts are we do underperform

[KitD]

Honest question: How much talent identification gets done by USRowing at the junior level, and what is the outcome?

The US are normally near the top of the table in Junior Worlds each year. Are there any programs to pull out a selected few and concentrate resources on them? If they are just allowed to enter the college system and come out the other end as (hopefully) the complete article, that per se seems a risky strategy given the diversity in standards between the colleges. Maybe there needs to be a subset of univ and college programs under the umbrella of USRowing, geared towards guiding the talent to the national team.

People rightly highlight the level of funding of the GB system, but IMHO where it has been most effective in the last 10 years or so is in finding new junior talent (in some cases, openly stealing it from other sports), and focussing training and coaching effort on them. The number of athletes in the GB system who came into the team via this route is now fairly significant.

[Stewie Griffin Should Cox]

The US are normally near the top of the table in Junior Worlds each year

In exactly the same events as they win medals at Seniors. M8+ W8+ W4- thats about it....

And there is not a lot else going on

Athlete identification is left in the US to Colleges.