O Canada.....

My grandnephew Matt's hometown newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, quoted Matt and his fellow St. Paul native Micah Boyd--US men's 8 teammates--in the following story in its online edition today:

U.S. men's crew team hopes to surprise Canada
By Sean Jensen
sjensen@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 08/12/2008 01:10:07 PM CDT


BEIJING — They may be the defending Olympic champions, but the United States men's eight enters Sunday's final as a decided underdog.

In the four years since the 2004 Athens Olympics, Canada has emphasized that particular boat, loading it with their top rowers, even at the sake of the small crews.

"That was their thing," St. Paul native Micah Boyd said. "I mean, they've got some really good rowers in that eight (but) other boats suffered for that."

Indeed, the Canada has developed into the dominant nine-man crew in the world, winning each race it has entered over the past 18 months, including the 2007 World Championship, most of them by the length of a boat.

"It will be hard," Boyd said of his team's chances. "We'll have to execute the perfect race.

"The goal is to surprise Canada. I mean, in my mind, they're the clear favorites."

On Monday, despite a minor equipment issue, the Canadians won their heat by several boat lengths, crossing the finish line in 5 minutes, 27 seconds. Times can be deceiving because of conditions, but the U.S. won its repechage on Tuesday in 5:38.

This is not an unfamiliar position for the U.S. In 2004, the Canadians were also favored to win gold, going undefeated for two years. But not only did the U.S. win in Athens, the Canadians weren't even close, finishing nine seconds behind for fifth place.

"If we win in Beijing, we still finished fifth in Athens," Kevin Light told the Canadian Press. "That doesn't change.

But we are using that experience to help us."
The Canadians don't lack experience; six of them rowed in 2004. By contrast, the U.S. returns three from their gold-medal crew; Boyd and fellow St. Paul native Matt Schnobrich are among the newcomers.

But Schnobrich said the team clearly has a solid "framework" in place.

"If you win an Olympic medal in anything, you obviously did something right," he said. "So you'd be at a loss to reinvent the wheel and try something different."

The U.S. team appeared to attempt a tweak in their opening heat on Monday, when they stuck to their pre-race game plan, even after another team passed them.

"The Brits took a length out of us, in the second 500, and we just sat and let that happen, because we were staying in our race plan and hoping to make things work when we wanted them to," Schnobrich said. "But you can't race that way.

"We made some good changes (Tuesday), but there's still things to work on."

The U.S. led after 1,000 meters on Tuesday, but the Australians gained a slight edge after 1,500. Over the final 500, though, the U.S. recovered and finished nearly one second ahead of the Aussies.

"We wanted to practice our sprint," Boyd said.

Schnobrich said his team is confident but they expect a "dogfight."

"I think the Canadians and the Brits and the Aussies are going to bring their best races," he said. "It's the Olympic finals. It's what everybody thinks it is.

"We're going to come and lose consciousness with about 250 meters to go...(and) keep going. So, hopefully that puts us in the right place."

Atop the medal stand may be difficult — "gold's going to be hard," Boyd said — but the U.S. definitely hopes they can repeat their performance in Athens.

"We'll have to execute the perfect race," Boyd said. "The goal is to surprise Canada. I mean, in my mind, they're the clear favorites."

This must be what Ex-Shammickite was warning me about...she said that she'd cheer for Matt's team as long as it wasn't rowing against Canada.