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Over the past 3 years Vancouver Film Studios has sponsored and supported Krista Guloien. As an unknown rower in 2005 with only university level experience, her dream of participating in Beijing 2008 was lofty to say the least. Since then she has dedicated herself entirely to the pursuit of a place on the Olympic rowing team representing Canada, and all Canadians.
As we approach the Games - starting August 8 - she will be providing us with weekly updates on progress toward her dream. As you will read, making the Canadian Olympic team is a nail-biting process guaranteed to keep athletes, and everyone associated with them, in a state of high anxiety. There is no coronation ceremony - it's a fight to the finish.
And then comes the real test: the Games themselves.
Please join me in following her story and wishing her all the best in her pursuit of excellence.
Pete Mitchell
Executive Vice President and COO of Vancouver Film Studios
Crew Photos:
Week 24:
Well, it is the morning after the repechage. Going into yesterday’s race it was clear that we had our work cut out for us and we were in for the toughest race of our lives. I was nervous, but in a healthy way. We headed out onto the water at 4:00pm for our 4:50pm race. The wind had turned from a tail wind to a head wind, which we have been rowing more comfortably in. I was positive in the warm-up and I was ready. Thinking back, I think we had all of the ingredients to do well. In the end we finished 5th, one spot shy of the A final. Our race was one step forward from our first race and I can assure you that I had nothing left to give. We have had some hard breaks along our journey with injury and the timing really didn’t work out in our favour. It is definitely human nature to play the “what if” game, but it is not really worth it. Yesterday I had my moment and today I am back on track. I am an athlete and I came here to do what I love to do and that is race. I will now be doing what I love in the B final on August 16th at 3pm against Russia.
Disappointment, heart break, misery, sadness are a few emotions that I imagine I should feel. Strangely, I feel quite numb. I think that it will take a while for this to sink in. Even being here in general is hard to absorb. It is all so surreal to be at the Olympics for the first time. It is such an honour and a privilege to be here. I am so proud to be here as an athlete, an Olympian and most importantly a Canadian.
Thank you for all of the support! It is amazing to get all of your messages and feel your excitement for me through my laptop. I imagine you are feeling like you don’t know what to say now. Please don’t worry. I am a strong woman and it is going to take more than this to get me down;) I do believe that it is not about “the fall”, but about how you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move forward. You will not catch me with my head down. There is nothing more satisfying than going for your dreams with the fire and intensity that it has taken to get here where I am. I strongly encourage each and every one of you to strive for your dreams. Even when you fail (by definition), you succeed in so many immeasurable ways.
For a long time I had it has been in my head that I was going to go for Beijing and then retire. I am feeling very different now. I only started this journey in 2001 and I feel I haven’t given myself a fair chance to thrive. It isn’t over yet! It is even crazy to me that I am thinking and feeling this way. You would think that after all of the years of training, especially over the last year, I would want to get away from rowing and take a break. True...I do want a little break. I also want to learn from the mistakes I feel have been made in this quadrennial and apply them as a mature athlete. I want to experiment with my training and go fast!
Thank you again for all of your support.
Stay tuned for more updates! B final, closing ceremonies and fun stories from China to come!
Week 23:
August 7th, 2008
We are one day away from the opening ceremonies! They will begin here tomorrow at 8pm and we have decided that we will be attending. For those of you on the West Coast, they will be taking place while you are snuggled in your beds at 5am. Make sure you look for me somewhere in the crowd when you watch it aired on CBC.
I am filled with anticipation! Having been out of the village at the King and Queen Garden Hotel, we have not had the chance to fully experience the Olympic vibe. Parts of me are grateful for the setup, as I really do not need to be distracted at this point. There may be too much stimuli in the village. The reports I have heard so far have confirmed this suspicion of mine. Post competition however will be a better time to get into the spirit and play in the background/periphery of the Olympic Games! As you can imagine and as I can predict.....this could get a little crazyJ We plan to change locations once our racing is completed. Hopefully we will end up somewhere a little bit closer to the action.
Being out of the village has also limited, if not cut off our exposure to other athletes from Canada and around the world. Tomorrow night will be a good time to meet other Canadian athletes. Hopefully I will be able to keep myself together and not become completely awestruck by the whole experience. I saw Adam van Koeverden, our flag bearer, and Olympic medalist today at the Shunyi course. The canoe/kayak events will also be held here. He is a very down to earth fella.
Today’s temperature is 31 degrees with a “haze”. With 63% humidity it feels like 42 degrees. Basically, it is not possible to stay dry while being outside. Luckily we are always on our way to practice or returning back to our hotel/safety bubble. I can imagine my mother and sisters will not be impressed with the temperature change from the West Coast to China. The family arrives tomorrow afternoon. Yeah!
The draw for the heats comes out tonight. We will know tomorrow who we are racing on Sunday! This little tid bit of information really makes what we have ahead of us seem all the more real. I can’t wait to find out! Who will it be, who will it be......USA, UKR, RUS, CHN, GBR, GER, and/or AUS??????
We did some race pieces today and things are coming along. We still have quite a few practices to go, but I think we are ready! I am starting to get pretty pumped! It is go time! Well, it will be on Sunday at 4:30 PM or 4:40 PM.
Take care
I will be sending out a full report of the opening ceremonies ASAP!
Stay tuned,
Krista Guloien
Ok, so I wrote this early and now I know the draw as I send it out! We will be racing at 4:30pm against RUS, UKR and CHN.....We have to be 1st to make it straight through to the A Final. We will be going for it, I can tell you that much!
Week 22:
Well it is Tuesday August 5th and we have now been here in Beijing for a week. It feels like it has been longer......we are quite settled into our routine already and are feeling quite comfortable.
My introduction to China has been amazing, right from stepping foot off of the plane. I cannot believe how hospitable everyone we have encountered has been. We were immediately ushered/escorted off of the plane and into appropriate lines to have our Visas and Accreditation checked. There was no waiting in lines or confusion. It was organized as organized could be and quick! This experience was in a way very relaxing in that you know things are taken care of. If that experience was any indication of what is to come....we are set!
From then on there has been example after example of the same thing. China has left no stone unturned from the hospitality/volunteer staff to our venue and even the shrubs and decor along the streets is done to perfection. They are really putting on quite a show for the world. I have been super impressed.
We are not staying in the village, so we are out of the hoopla of it all. This is a good thing. It is really nice to be in our own little safe bubble, especially for during competition. We are going to move closer to the village and experience it all once we have finished our work on the 17th!
The rowing course is pretty standard. It is a man made basin. There is little to no wind, so that has been manageable. The air quality is more humid and heavy than smoggy. There was one afternoon row where some bad air blew in, but other than that one night it has been fine. There was even one day that you could see from one end of the course to the other and the mountains!!! It was beautiful. I imagine that the air quality will only get better and I do not believe that it is going to cause us any problems. We have to be more careful of the heat...staying well hydrated etc.
We have not found out yet what the transportation will be like to get to the opening ceremonies, but we are looking into it. We were not totally sure if we thought going was a good idea being that we race on the 10th. The more time we have let the idea settle the more it has grown on us and the more we want o go. It really is a key part of the Olympic experience. I am excited! I better get the waterproof mascara out for that one;)
We have got a lot of great gear as well. HBC has outfitted us with a whole wardrobe of awesome team clothing. We are all looking pretty sharp. Hopefully when you watch the opening ceremonies you will agree! Bell Canada has also given us phones to keep and use while at the games. They have so far been great for keeping in touch with teammates. They will also be very necessary in the even t of any type of emergency. We have been very well taken care of!
I am more than happy with my Olympic experience so far. I am crazy excited to have my family arrive and for them to see China and the Olympics. They arrive on the 8th. We are getting more and more comfortable in the boat, everyone is healthy and we are more than ready to race, race, race! This is going to be so FUN and is that not the best way to explain this experience which might just be one of the hardest things I have ever set myself up to do!
Week 20:
Well, the countdown is on and we leave in 4 days! It is pretty surreal to be saying that right now. I am starting to get “excited”. We had a discussion on the way to practice the other morning about “excitement”. It is hard to label it as that per say. It is almost something else.....maybe anticipation more than excited. There are so many emotions flying around right now. There have been many tense moments this week. We are all quite exhausted walking an emotional tight rope it seems. Totally normal....I presume.
The last two weeks, as I think I mentioned in the last update have been crazy intense in terms of our workouts and workload in general. He is really pushing for the line here. Luckily for us, the worst is over and I can see the light of taper coming my way! We have started to ease up slightly. Any normal human being would disagree with me I am sure; however, after what we have endured this seems very manageable.
We hired a woman to come out to the lake and take some crew photos of the quad. We got the finished result yesterday and I love the photos. I can only imagine how amazing it will be to have these in the future. I feel that I have done a good job of documenting my journey in photos. They really are irreplaceable. There are so many more to come!!!
Training in the quad with Anna –marie back in the boat has been a daily progression. We are improving and gelling more and more each day. There is absolutely no doubt that this is the fastest four people for this job! We just have to smooth out the edges and be as consistent as possible. When we do this we are going along very well. I could tell from Carsten’s energy when he was watching us practice one day that he was impressed with our potential. Perhaps not necessarily how we were rowing at the time, but how we were capable of rowing. This is super important.....the rest will come. Although we don’t have oodles of time, we have been together for a while now and we all know how to race. I have definitely had my moments, however they are fleeting and I know that anything is possible for us!
I am anticipating this to be quite the experience. We thought we were going to skip the opening ceremonies, as they are on the 8th and we race on the 10th, however, after a group discussion I heard all of the different perspectives and I changed my mind a little. The athletes that had been to the Olympics before had perspectives that opened up my eyes to what I might be missing out on. It is all part of the experience and I am not sure that I want to miss that. I do not want to stand around for hours on end exhausting myself for competition. I have decided to hold off on deciding until we get there.
Thank you so much for your continued support. I am not sure that I will ever be able to express my gratitude sufficiently! You are very special to me and have become part of the core foundation upon which I stand and reach for my dreams.....Thank you!
I will be in touch from Beijing.
Week 18:
Good week! I have been all over the place, so this weeks update is a compilation of different time periods over the last week or so. Hopefully it is not too scattered and confusing to enjoy;)
Beginning of last week.........
Well, it has been an exciting week here in Poznan! On Monday FISA, as well as the Russian women’s quad and the Romanian women’s quad graciously allowed for us to race “exhibition” in their exhibition race for lanes. There are only two women’s quads here in Lucerne fighting over that last spot in Beijing. This is a very intense regatta to watch! This is make or break for these crews and it is down to the wire. We are talking points of a second between a sure thing and the sudden death of a dream!
Racing on Monday was a great release after all that we have struggled through this month over in Europe. It really has been a gong show. It has been one thing after another, however, we have taken it all in stride and it has taught us a lot. I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to beat the Russians and Romanians after losing our stroke seat, having ME steering, as well as having a dehydrated/sick athlete in the boat (Janine). I had a feeling on the bus to the course that she was in limbo, but I said nothing and neither did she. I was really hoping that nothing was going to stop us from getting our long awaited race experience. She was a trooper and we managed to pull off a successful race. It was very relaxed....shockingly. I felt very calm; as well, I felt that we were able to work on what we have been practicing out on the water. All of our small things are starting to become second nature. It is a calming, yet exhilirating and exciting experience. I left the regatta to head back to the hotel knowing that we are going to be OK, no matter what we face down the road.
Anna-marie is back in London Ontario rehabing and working on getting better. She has had a bone scan and it is in fact a stress fracture, which is said to take 6 weeks to heal. She will be at around 4 weeks when we return. She is starting to feel better, so that is promising and she is thinking that she will be ready to slowly get back into the boat by the time we return. Hopefully it will all work out perfectly and we will train smart to get back on track.
Middle of the week........
THE WOMEN’S EIGHT DID IT!!!!!!!!!
What a day of racing here in Poznan. It was so emotional to watch crews fighting to the death for those last spots at the Olympics. It was quite an experience to be on the other side of racing watching both my teammates, as well as competitors duke it out! For Canada, we had a lightweight men’s double, heavy men’s quad, four and pair and the women’s eight. The men’s pair started the day off qualifying and making it look easy! The men’s four and quad were to follow and unfortunately did not make the cut. It was literally heart wrenching to watch them lay it all on the line and for it to come down to seconds. The men’s lightweight double picked my spirits coming in third to take the final available spot in Beijing!
Finally, the last race of the day and in a lot of ways the most important race to me. I literally went to bed the night before feeling as though I was racing. We, as the Canandian women’s team have been very focused on getting the women’s eight qualified all year! I feel that it has probably helped for all of us to pick up the pace and train towards this goal. It was the culmination of all of that work today when the Canadian women charged for the line and took the number one spot for Beijing!!!!! See the press release below: ....so exciting!!!
Women’s Eight (W8+)
The Dutch supporters at the Malta rowing course in Poznan had swelled to large and vocal numbers. Whenever the big screen at the finish line flashed up the leading boat, the Dutch went wild. Out in front, the Netherlands had taken an aggressive approach and earned the edge over China in second. Canada followed closely in third. The Dutch crowd continued to enjoy what the big screen was telling them as their crew maintained a steady 35 stroke rate and remained in the lead.
The last 300 metres were in sight and Canada’s coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie told her crew what to do. Moving to a 38 stroke rate the Canadians closed the gap on the Netherlands. China, now rating 45, was going for broke. Canada crossed the line in first, the Netherlands qualify from second. China as a nation had put a huge emphasis on the women’s and men’s eight. These two boats had become the symbol of what the Olympics was all about for their nation. Today the results did not go China’s way. They will have a men’s eight at the Beijing Olympics but no women’s eight.
1st: Heather MANDOLI (CAN)
“It was close the whole way down the course. We have total respect for all the other crews. It was a race right from the first stroke to the last. It’s an honour and an exciting time for all of us. It’s my first Olympics and it’s wonderful to be one of the teams there.”
2nd: Femke DEKKER (NED)
“We were very happy to go to the Olympics. We’ve trained really hard for this. Last year was really disappointing in Munich. We were in the B Final. We’re very happy this year especially with the men’s eight qualifying too. I couldn’t be happier actually.”
Results: CAN, NED
End of the week.....
Friday June 20th, 2008
Well, it was Thursday morning and Janine and I finally got confirmation that we had an entry to race Poznan World Cup in the Women’s Double. Not only an entry, but also a boat to row. We had been hearing whispers and rumors all week that this might happen, but we didnt have our hopes up too hight. Today we officially raced the 2x, after having two rows out on the water to set it all up. We did not have the race of our lives, yet we did have fun! This was our third row in the double and I am not going to lie and say that I wasnt beyond nervous. Janine actually said that she was still shaking after our first 10 strokes. I think we were paralyzed with fear. I also think it was mainly the fear of the unknown. Racing the quad makes you nervous, but we train in that and we can trust our ability to do what we do in training. In the double, which we have trained in at home we feel less of that sense of knowing and comfort. We have actually struggled quite a bit at home to make the small boat go fast. As a crew I think that it is safe to say that we are all a little ashamed of this fact. For some reason we gel in the quad, but we struggle to get a 2x going. Janine follows me in the quad, so it is not foreign in that way for us to be in the small boat. I felt a sense of relief even after having finished the race. Although we came last, I immediately felt more comfortable and ready to race the repechage. Overall, getting to race the double has been a great chance to race and a welcomed challenge as a rower. I can see racing this boat in the future. Now I can say that I have already raced it internationally;) Tomorrow we will race the repechage at 2:26pm....there are 4 boats and we need to be top 2 to make the Final A. NZL, FIN, and BLR are the competition.
Saturday June 21st, 2008
Good morning!
Well, we did it! We had to come top 2 today to make it through to the A final and we did it! It was pretty scarey again. Raging tailwind....we are talking white caps. It was much like the water we train on at home;) To be honest, I was much more afraid of the other women in the doubles than the water. Thankfully they distracted me! hahaha
I felt a lot more alert today and ready to race. Both Janine and I knew we were going to have to race hard to make this happen. The first 700m was not as windy as the final 1300m, so Carsten said race as hard as you can for as long as you can and "row straight". We have heard that before.....
His feedback from yesterday was that we rowed well, but we needed to pull harder. So that was the plan...go out and pull as hard as you can while rowing as good as you can. He reminded us as we pushed off that "it wouldnt be pretty". It sure wasnt! The last 300m or so is when the FIN double (who are actually lightweights...damn lightweights are fast!) took us to take the lead by 0.2 seconds! We were hitting water and struggling at that point. Thank goodness for all of the good strokes we took in our start and the body of the race. Apparently they helped cause the other two crews BLR and NZL could not catch us. I am not sure what is going on with NZL because they are usually the crew to watch. They did not race Lucerne due to sickness or injury and clearly things are not going well for them. Either way, we beat former world champions in the 2x today! I am not going to lie...I was pleasantly surprised we got our lead right out of the gates. Our first 3 strokes were bang on!
Janine called a lot today and was a bowing champ! After our sixth stroke when she calls "now" (like in the quad) we were getting into a rhythm, but we have noticed that we kindof lull. I watched for the speed of the water on the hull and after about 10 or so strokes I screamed out something....perhaps "lets go"....we picked that boat up and kept her moving! It was great! Since we knew we were not going to have great water for the whole race, we also did a move at the 500m....why not, said Janine. The rest of the race was a battle with the conditions. Janine kept calmly saying..."just row better than them" and "lightweights"... there were a few extra jems in there too. I definitely gave her a couple of shout outs myself. It was pretty fun!
We will be racing GBR, ITA, FIN, CZE, ROU tomorrow!
Our spare/lightweight extrodianaire Jennerich just won the lightweight single!!!! Such a great race! That woman can race I tell ya. She took the IRL girl right at the finish! So sweet! Gold medal for Lindsay!!! Good day of racing. Tomorrow we will race the A final at 11:33am...time to rest up!
Here is the summary from today on worldrowing.com
Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – Repechages
The two repechages in this event required athletes to finish in either first or second and in repechage one Germany’s new double combination of Juliane Domscheit and Jeannine Hennicke took the early lead. But it wasn’t long before Gabriela Varekova and Jitka Antosova of the Czech Republic were able to get their nose in front. Varekova and Antosova have been rowing together since they raced in the junior quad in 2003. They are not big rowers but they looked tidy in these difficult conditions. The Czechs remained in the lead with Domscheit and Hennicke comfortably in second. These two boats go through to the final.
The first half of repechage two was tight, very tight, between the four countries racing. Canada’s Janine Hanson and Krista Guloien had a slight lead. Hanson and Guloien were in the quad last year and qualified that boat for the Beijing Olympics. Here in the double they were holding their own. Belarus, New Zealand and Finland followed closely behind. As New Zealand slipped off the pace, Belarus, Finland and Canada fought it out for the two qualifying spots. Coming into the final sprint, Sana Sten and Minna Nieminen of Finland, who will be going to the Olympics in the lightweight class, used their lighter frames to skim across the top of the water and finish first. Canada take second and will therefore join Finland in the final.
Week 17:
Good afternoon.
It is June 15th and I am here in Poznan, Poland. Seems like a nice enough little city, however, I have not really done any exploring. We have been in our hotel, which is very nice in comparison to some of the places we have stayed (it’s a Sheraton!) and the course. Once again on this journey bad luck has managed to strike. We were getting in some awesome training back in Austria and then we arrived in Poznan.
Well actually let’s back it up a couple of steps. While we were in Austria we found out that there was no one entered in our event for the World Cup. What does this mean? No race for the Canadian women’s quad! BUMMER! Apparently, there are contrasting strategies and beliefs when it comes to racing this close to the Olympic qualifier and the Olympics. Some countries are feeling it is more beneficial to be at home training versus in Europe racing. Either way, it is pretty unfortunate that we have come all this way for two race opportunities and we have not had any races as of yet.
We have spent the rest of the trip in Austria and most of our trip here in Poznan troubleshooting. We put in a request to FISA to let us race exhibition against the Romanian and Russian women’s quads in the race for lanes on Monday June 16th (tomorrow at 11:12am). We will be separated by a couple lanes to make sure that there is no possible interference in what is their pre race for arguably the biggest race of their careers on Wednesday. Also, we are considering entering a double this weekend in the World Cup. This will once again test our ability to be versatile in a stressful situation. Many a life lesson being learned here, as well as crisis management. I can only imagine that this is going to make me a stronger person. I can’t wait to see the benefit of this!
Speaking of crisis management.....Rachelle and I tried to set up a double two days ago. She was not familiar with the particular boat we went out in and she did not screw her rigger down properly. For those of you that don’t know, this is the critical piece of metal that is bolted down to the boat and stretches out along either side to create the two points where the oars are attached, creating a balance point. Anyway, we pushed off and took a couple strokes off the dock and her rigger came off. WOW! She pushed the PANIC BUTTON hard!!! She immediately started screaming “we are going in, we are going in”....I was laughing, but in all seriousness disagreed with her and was pretty determined not to go into the very warm yet dirty waters of the Poznan basin. What a scene. There were a lot of people to watch, however no one that could speak English or provide any assistance. Luckily, we were blown back to the dock by the screaming head wind, which was also just a nice little cherry on top of our situation. I was trying to row us in, yet my efforts were not appreciated by Rachelle who was sure that we were just about ready to tip at any moment. For once we lucked out! We managed to “gracefully” throw ourselves onto the dock like floundering fish and we managed to save the last bit of dignity we could by not flipping at a high calibre international regatta! Yeah! Good times. I will NEVER forget that little experience.... that is for sure.
We are now getting ready to race tomorrow. Oh, I forgot to mention that Janine came down with some form of food poisoning yesterday, so she was in bed/on the toilet for the day. We managed to go for a short row this morning, yet as you can imagine she was quite dehydrated and weak. Not ideal once again. I just hope that we can execute some version of a race tomorrow that we can learn from and use in our SERIOUS training to come when we get home to London and hopefully Anna-marie will be good to go!
Take care!
Krista
Week 16:
Good week!
I am in Austria now....in particular Volkermarkt. It is a small little town and we are staying in a quaint little family run hotel. They are very nice and we have everything we need, including laundry and internet! Yeehooo! It is the little things that count on these trips I tell you;)
We rowed this morning with our new spare. She is a lightweight woman and after Lucerne the coaches/Rowing Canada decided to keep her around to train with us while we recover from our injuries. I say “our”, however it is only Anna-marie who is unable to row at this point. My rib/back/sternum is still causing me slight discomfort, however, I am rowing through it. The medical staff, which I usually barely see, has been my saving grace. I cannot imagine the state we would be in if they were not here.
The site we are rowing at is quite beautiful. I was reminded of BC as we walked down to the lake. Austria in general reminds me of BC. It is green and the trails have the fresh rain/mossy smell that remind me of home. Not so much London, but British Columbia.
We will be here until the 12th and then we will head to Poznan. That gives the women’s eight 6 days to prepare for their BIG race on the 18th. That is the date of the final Olympic qualifier where 2 boats will solidify their spot at the Olympics. After coming out of Lucerne with a Bronze medal, the women must be feeling confident in their ability to pull this all together. I am sure they are still feeling a lot of pressure and stress heading towards this looming date. Anything can happen, as we have seen. I am sure that they are going to be very successful. I was very proud to watch them in Lucerne. I know how hard they have worked and I am so glad to see it paying off for them. It is a shame that we did not get to test ourselves (the quad). Our chance is not over yet. Hopefully, we will be in working order come time to race Poznan! My hopes are high!!!
The above was written a week ago....today Monday June 9th, things are different yet again. Never a dull moment around here. On Thursday Anna-marie decided it was best if she go home and get better/treatment. This was not exactly a shock, however, the reality of it did hit home. Her flight was booked and she was gone the next morning. Carsten told us we could take a couple days to think about racing in our new combination in Poznan. There really isn’t much to think about....we want to race. I am now in Stroke seat, which is the person closest to the stern...I will be setting the rate, rhythm , as well I will have the rutter to steer the boat. There are wires which are attached to my right foot to control the steering. I am completely out of my element, doing someone else’s job! This is super stressful and I unavoidably putting a lot of pressure on myself. New combinations are a difficult thing to master, but then on top of that we have lost one of our strongest teammates, our stroke seat, and we have replaced her with an itty bitty thing of 5’5 and 127 ish pounds! I have to give her credit; Lindsay (our new teammate) is a very BIG personality in a little body! THE GIRL CAN RACE! She does not mess around and ironically she may be the best fit for our spare. It is so random how things work out because had everything not happened in the sequence it did, she never would have been on our radar. At the end of the day, this experience is teaching us a lot! First lesson....NEVER underestimate the little people! We continue to head toward our goal of racing in Poznan!! Here we go!
Take care,
Krista Guloien
Week 15:
Below is a media release from Lucerne, Switzerland (where we are now)
Lake Rotsee welcomes 38 nations to Rowing World Cup II
A total of 627 competitors will compete at the second stage of the 2008 Rowing World Cup series which
will be held from 30 May to 1 June 2008 at Lake Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Defending the colours of 38 nations, a total of 251 crews will race in 17 events. Only 14 of these events
earn points toward the highly contended World Cup. Points are awarded to the first seven crews ranking
in the 14 Olympic category boat classes.
The Canadian team makes their first 2008 appearance in full force at Lucerne with 13 boats entered.
Also travelling from afar is an extended New Zealand squad that includes their Olympic crews. This will
be the chance to see Mahe Drysdale in the single sculls and his national team opponent Rob Waddell
who shall be competing in the men’s double with Nathan Cohen for the first time this year on the
international circuit following this spring’s highly publicised New Zealand Olympic team trials.
After a very successful and highly attended first Rowing World Cup in Munich, Germany, at the
beginning of the month, the team from Great Britain lead the World Cup points table with 59 points. The
German team, who were competing on home turf, gained 56 World Cup points in Munich, and with 22
crews entered (one more than Great Britain) they shall be making a big push to get ahead in the
rankings and re-gain their dominant position.
China, this year’s Olympic host nation, also travel to Lucerne in large numbers as they continue to
narrow down who will be in the Olympic boats for their country.
This second Rowing World Cup event (as well as the other two events in the series) has particularly
high stakes this year. Results at these three regattas, as well as last year’s qualification World Rowing
Championships, will be taken into consideration by FISA’s seeding committee when placing boats in
heats for the Olympic Regatta. With so much to gain from a good performance, the racing during this
year’s Rowing World Cup series promises to be highly competitive.
For the full list of entries, by event and by nation, please visit our website www.worldrowing.com. The
website will also provide an event by event preview, race reports and photo galleries during and after
the regatta.
Rowing World Cup II – Lucerne, SUI 8. Media Guide © Copyright 2008 FISA & Infostrada Sports, all rights reserved > www.infostradasports.com
The Rowing World Cup series will be televised and streamed live through World Rowing’s partner
website www.wcsn.com. This service can be accessed through www.worldrowing.com. As usual, the
live race viewer and live audio streaming of the race commentary will be available throughout the whole
regatta.
The Rowing World Cup series was launched in 1997 and includes all 14 Olympic boat classes. The
overall Rowing World Cup champions are determined after a series of three regattas. Germany has
dominated the series since its beginning ten years ago. This year, the three stages of the series will be
held in Munich (GER) 8 to 11 May, Lucerne (SUI) 30 May to 1 June and Poznan (POL) 20 to 22 June.
Media accreditation can be requested through the website (www.worldrowing.com > media > media
accreditation).
For more information contact Marion Gallimore, FISA Marketing and Communications Manager on tel:
+41.21.617.83.73 or direct +41 21 612 02 26 E-mail: marion.gallimore@fisa.org
Unfortunately, since we have arrived I have been down with a cold and some back problems. Today Tuesday May 27th we thought was going to be the first day I was feel ing better. Unfortunately, again Anna-marie has come down with what the doctor is 70% sure is a stress fracture in her rib. Not to panic though, this can be overcome quickly with proper management. It does mean that this weekend may not be what we planned for it to be. My crew is sooo supportive and we are in good spirits. We are taking it day by day and doing our best to get through this. We have decided that these setbacks are only opportunities to comeback!!! So true!
Take care,
Krista Guloien
Week 14:
Hello and Good Week!
I am sorry I did not send an update out last week. Time is going by so fast and all of a sudden it is Wednesday again! Crazy!
We are now in Lucerne Switzerland getting settled and ready to race next weekend. I have come down with a crazy cold, most likely due to the drop in temperature we experience before we left. Also, my back is giving me some grief. I have one spot in particular in my upper back/ribs that gets aggravated with the intense workload of race pace season. I have had troubles before, so I am aware of the warning signs and I know how to treat this. It is always a bit stressful to be injured when you are in an event with three other people. They can’t do much without me and although they are totally understanding of my needs/situation, it is really hard to look at them and tell them I CANTL. I hate to disappoint my team! I know that WE will be better for it in the end. I have always been pretty aware of my body and what I need to do in order to go 110%. This is definitely an important attribute to have in this sport or anywhere I think. I have watched others, not to name any names, push beyond what is necessary and get side swiped by the end result which usually ends up being weeks out of their sport!
Lucerne is beautiful. It really reminds me of home (Vancouver) and makes me miss the combination of water and mountains. We are so lucky in Vancouver to be surrounded by the views of the mountains and the ocean. It is definitely cool to be looking out at the Swiss Alps. Seems so far away from home! Janine is from Winnipeg, so she is not so used to the view/mountains....she is taking lots of pictures. I will definitely be taking more pictures once I manage to leave the quarantine that is my room!
We will be racing everyone who is anyone next week. The leading competitors of Great Britain, Germany and China will all be there. China is actually putting two quads out. I definitely have my eye on these three countries, as I think they are the ones to beat! You never know though, anything can happen on any given day. The other countries are USA, Australia, and Ukraine. It is going to be great to see what we are made of. This course is well known in the rowing world. It is also spoken of in the highest regards. It has been said that it is a very fair course and the conditions are likely to be very favourable. I am excited to race here! It has been on my radar since I started rowing at this level!
That is all for now. I will try to put some photos together and another update early this week.!!
Take care,
Krista Guloien
Week 13:
Good week!
Well, we are now 84 days until the opening ceremonies and the excitement is definitely starting to build in a big way. Two of our three crews have officially been named for our first international visit coming up at the end of the month. We leave for Lucerne, Switzerland next Thursday.
I am extremely happy and motivated by the way selection has ended up for us. I truly believe that the fastest possible combination of women is Anna-marie, myself, Janine and Rachelle (that is also our boating order from stroke to bow). We have worked very hard as a quad and I trust each of them and I believe that we will do great things! It is such a relief to have the selection portion over with. There are many positive things that came out of if, but there is still much work to be done as a crew. I am glad to be back at it. The next phase is much more gruelling in many ways. We are now focusing on the nitty gritty and fine tuning all of our “little things”, as our coach likes to call them. Each person has something they need to work on and it is a constant challenge to get four out of four doing that all at the same time for one stroke, let alone 200-250! Rowing is so repetitive yet within every stroke something changes and you are adjusting all the while trying to remain consistent. It is a dream sport for those that are slightly obsessive compulsive, like me ;)
I was feeling quite motivated to make a move this weekend. I wanted to see if we could take it to the next level (whatever that might be at this point). Anyway, I came to practice with a big motivating speech to rally the troops! We all got pumped by the prospect of this idea and we went out and really gave it on our 20 km practice. It was great! By the afternoon I was really feeling exhausted- it was ONLY Monday! Oops ;)
Anyway, I fear I started the ball rolling toward crazy town. Tuesday’s practice was less than ideal and we had a bit of a clash on and off the water. It was good to hash things out and release some tension. I think that with emotions running this high and the stakes being this big “fights” are bound to happen. It is even slightly humorous in retrospect. I am definitely the person in the boat that leads many of our conversations...I have to be the bad guy sometimes because I have to say what everyone is likely to be thinking, but perhaps not willing to say out loud. I feel like I usually do a fairly good job of doing this and evoking a productive reaction. Tuesday was not one of those days. I lost my patience and what I said came across as insulting. There is a fine line these days because the emotions are running high and we are all exhausted. I am constantly fine tuning the balance between what needs to be said and what is better left unsaid. I am sure you can relate as this occurs in all relationships, as well as in the work force. In our particular situation, I feel that we are in a bit of an extreme/concentrated version of this dynamic. In some ways this feels nothing like the real world. I almost feel as though I am in a bubble!
I am definitely looking forward to getting to Lucerne and racing the World Cups! Although it is extremely nerve racking because this will be the first big race of the year and we are going to see where we stand, it is exciting for exactly the same reasons! I can’t wait!
I hope you are all taking care, I will be in touch.
Krista Guloien
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