I arrived in Prague on Monday afternoon after a long and not very restful 16 hours of travel. The US team is staying in a hotel in the northern part of Prague and I am rooming with a para rower in the PR3, but he didn’t arrive until Wednesday, so I had the room to myself for my first two days, which was very nice! I slept for 12 hours that first night and feel pretty in tune with the time change now.
There are probably 50 or 60 US athletes and a couple of dozen coaches and staff here. It is really awesome being able to meet so many new rowers and train with them. Competing in a single and often alone, I really miss the camaraderie that exists within rowing, so it is great to be able to experience that here. I have met a lot of the para team in the past, but this is my first time meeting the rest of the senior team. A lot of Buffalo connections!
For the past three days, we have been at the course from 7 a.m until 4 p.m. Racice, where the venue is, is an hour north of our hotel and there are intermittent busses that shuttle the athletes and coaches back and forth. The venue in Racice is very nice. It is a man-made lake that is about 2300 meters long and in the middle of the Czech countryside. Team China and the US were the only teams there when we arrived on Tuesday but a lot more teams arrived Wednesday and today.
Sasha and I have been training twice a day and are getting used to the new boat, which is a Filippi! I have been training in a Swift this past summer, which is another boat manufacture, so it is interesting to try out a new type of boat. They all meet the same specifications, but each are slightly different. We spent all morning tuesday rigging the boat to be as similar to what I have been training in this summer as possible. There are tons of things you can adjust on the boat, especially a PR1 boat from big adjustments like oar length and rigger distance to small tweaks like the angle of the foot plate. All of the adjustments can make a difference, so we want to make sure all of our work over the past couple of months, finding what works best for my stroke, can be transferred to the new boat!
We are playing around with different tape for the oar handle as my left hand has gotten quite beaten up. I will spare you pictures, but it’s been very bloody. Part of this is due to the reduced grip strength in that hand, which causes me to compensate with the middle of my palm. Generally, you shouldn’t grip with this part of your hand when you’re pulling through the stroke. Other than that small issue, I am feeling strong and putting in a lot of meters on the water. As more teams have arrived, there are more PR1 athletes training with me, which is quite exciting. Every PR1 rower has a different stroke and, being on the water with them, I am learning a lot.
My first race will be heats on Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m CET. I will share links to the Livestream when I have them, but in general, all of the days will be live-streamed on YouTube. If you search 2022 World Rowing Championships it should come up. Depending on how I do on Tuesday (the top two finishers go right to semi-finals) I will be racing in Reps on Wednesday, Semi-Finals on Friday, and Finals on Sunday. A lot of racing!
It’s very exciting being over here and I will continue sharing updates and pictures!