Report from Olympic Trials: Michael Aller, F'99
JUNE 3, 2004
I am writing to give you an update on my progress with rowing. The US Olympic rowing trials were held May 19-23 at Mercer County Lake, NJ. Trials were held in four events, including the lightweight men's double, the event we have been preparing for over much of the past year. My doubles partner, Shawn Stephenson and I finished second overall. Unfortunately, only the winning boat advances to the Olympic qualification regatta in Switzerland (and then hopefully on to Athens), so we will not be representing the US this summer in the lightweight double.
The regatta went pretty well overall, despite the final result. The rowers that won trials, Steve Tucker and Greg Ruckman, both rowed in the Syndney Games in 2000 and between them have almost a dozen years of national and Olympic team experience. They had also rowed together in the double last year at the World Championships.
There were 15 boats entered at trials in our event. When the initial draw was posted, we found we were to face the Tucker/Ruckman duo in our first race, with one boat to advance directly to the semifinals. We had a good race. We led for about 2/3rds of the race, and were almost dead even with a quarter of the race to go. They took a move in the end that surprised us a little, so they crossed the line first, but we felt we were at least on even terms with them and had a good shot to beat them the next time. Our times were well faster than all of the other boats that morning.
We won our repechage (second-chance race) that afternoon to advance to the semifinals, again with the fastest time.
In the semifinal on Thursday morning, we led from wire to wire, and finished with a time slightly faster than Steve & Greg, who won the other semifinal. Our training partners from Augusta held the other qualifying place in our semi until the last few strokes, when they were just barely caught by a boat from New Jersey.
In the first final on Friday morning, we started well. Like the first race, we led for over half of the race. Tucker and Ruckman managed to slowly chip into our lead, and we did our best to hold them off, but they managed to catch us about 2/3rds of the way through. We tried hard to stay with them, but they managed to pull away. They rowed a higher stroke rate than we did - we had prepared to row about 36 to 37 strokes per minute, and they rowed the final at about 39 or 40 per minute, which allowed them to move on us in the second half of the race. We decided to conserve our energy at the end and finished 2nd, 6 seconds back.
The US uses a best 2 out of 3 progression for the finals of Olympic trials, so we had another shot at them on Saturday. We decided to try to match their stroke rating and see if we could keep them from catching us. It was a risk, because we hadn't had a lot of practice rowing that high, but it seemed our best chance. We started quickly again, and managed to maintain the higher rating (and the lead)for a bit over halfway. Despite our higher rate, Steve and Greg managed to pull even with about 800 meters to go. We put everything we had into staying with them, but there just wasn't enough left in the tank. We faded badly in the last few meters, and ended up being passed by another boat that was trailing behind. We finished the second final in 3rd place, 11 seconds behind Steve & Greg.
It was disappointing to come up short, but I really felt that we gave everything we had, and were just a little bit slower than we needed to be in the end. We were the only boat there that had a chance of beating Tucker & Ruckman, but it wasn't to be. They are a very solid combination, and I think they have a real chance at a medal this year if things go well.
My wife Jill, my parents and her parents were all there to support us, and it was really wonderful to have their encouragement.
Our group from the Augusta center did well overall. The open women's double of Carol Sckricki and Ala Piotrowski won their trials and will be representing the US at the Olympic qualifier later this month. Of four lwt men's doubles from Augusta, we finished 2nd, and two others just barely missed making the finals (top 4); and Cindy Bishop finished 2nd in the open women's single trials.
As for my next step, there is an opportunity to compete at the World Championships in the lightweight quad (the event I have competed in the past couple of years). The lightweight quad is not contested on the Olympic program, but in Olympic years they have a separate world championships for non-Olympic events. That regatta will be held in Banyoles, Spain (on the 1992 Barcelona Olympic course) the last week of July. I think we have a real opportunity to do very well at that race - we were close to getting a medal last year and we have another year of experience behind us.
After the summer is complete, I will be attending graduate school in international economics at the University of California, San Diego. I plan to continue rowing in my spare time, and in a couple of years consider whether to make a shot at 2008 (in Beijing!).
I will keep you up to date on my progress over the summer, and I hope that 2004 continues to be a great year for each of you.
All the best,
Michael Aller
