The United States deals with a rowing
population of over 180,000 spread across a
land mass twice the size of the European Union
and including 50 states. This alone is a huge
challenge when trying to pick the best athletes.
Of this rowing population, a sizeable chunk is
made up of masters rowers. The elite level is
boosted by the strength of collegiate rowing
while high school rowing, in comparison, is
not as strong.
May. The country’s selection process is tightly
bound to collegiate sport and thus has to work
around the university rowing season.
Like Germany, the United States system
leaves final selection for the World Rowing
Championships until late in the season. The final
team nomination date this year is 10 August, just
two weeks before the start of the World Rowing
Championships.
The nature of the American psyche means that
national team selection procedures have to be
spelt out and as transparent as possible to avoid
any potential legal action against the national
body, USRowing. The 2009 selection procedures
for the senior team alone are covered in a 37-
page document.
Choosing to trial in a small boat means virtual
training freedom. These rowers can train wherever
they want and with whomever they want. They
simply need to win the selection regatta, make
the time standard, and they will be the selected
boat. For the quads, fours and eights, athletes
train at selection camps. These camps typically
begin in early May and end in late July.
National team programme manager Elpi Pagitsas
says the selection cycle is broken down into
different scenarios according to boat size. The
small boat selection process begins in April while
the selection process of bigger boats begins in
Depending on the year, in relation to the Olympic
cycle, there are about 40 to 75 athletes based at
the USRowing Training Centres. Of those rowers
about 80 per cent are full-time athletes. >
