Olympics

It is clear that the build of rowers has changed since the early days of the sport. 50 years previous the build of average rowers were quite small, the emphasis being on lightness and a body built for endurance. Nowadays however, rowers are a great deal larger and their body proportions are very different. Rowers are now seletced when they are young if they show promising shape and what they eat is closely monitored in order to allow their bodies to develop in the right way. So what is the perfect rowing body and why?

Woman can often be as tall as surfboards, over 6′0″ in some cases and men above 6′4″. This means that the length of their stroke is far greater than the average person and this results in a larger generation of power with each pull. A rower’s legs are incredibly strong; they do a great deal of work in the gym, often squatting their own body weight repeatedly. These strong legs are the driving force of the movement and are as important in during the acceleration phase as they are throughout the race to maintain momentum. Next time you are at a rowing event, cycling along the river bank on your second hand bikes take a look at the legs of the rowers when they are pulling away from the start. You will see that they are bulging and generating incredible power, something that would injure the average person’s legs in seconds.

Another element of a rower that is incredibly strong is the back. The bad posture that rowers pocess means that they have difficulties with other sports and everyday tasks but means that they are optimally shaped for movement on the water. To deal with the vast strains involved in pulling the ores through the water repeatedly, their backs are highly developed and they hold a large amount of bulk around the shoulders and torso. Lastly, an unsuspected phiological element of rowers is the fact that slow-twitch fibres are found in abundance. This is something more normal seen in longer distance performers. This means that they can work for long periods of time which is useful as a large number of races are over a mile long. A lot of rowing events are long distance and you’ll see these are often suited to slighter body types. That said, rowers also hold a good number of fast-twitch muscle fibres,giving strength and speed that are required as well. For snowboards and canoes please visit EST.

Cadet World Fencing Championships Slideshow

The US Fencing Team has gotten off to a strong start in the competition at the 2009 Cadet and Junior World Fencing Championships in Belfast, Ireland winning four medals in the first two days of competition.  Nzihgha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Lee Kiefer (Versailles, Ky.) started hauling in the hardware, winning gold and silver respectively in the Cadet Individual Women’s foil competition on Sunday, April 5, the opening day of the competition.  Prescod defended her Cadet World title by defeating teammate Kiefer in the gold medal bout. 

Day one of the competition also saw Margaret L.C. Lu (Greenwich, Conn.) take 12^th place in the Cadet Individual Women’s Foil.  In the Cadet Individual Men’s Sabre division the U.S. was represented by Michael Mills (Milburn, N.J.) in 20^th place; Alexander Ryjik (Alexandria, Va.) in 33^rd place and Will Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.) who finished 67^th.

Outside of Wheeler’s gold and Glon’s bronze, day two also saw Celina Merza (Wayne, N.J.) finish 18^th in the Cadet Individual Women’s Sabre.  Peregrine Badger (Providence, R.I.), Jake Harbour (Santa Fe, N.M.) and Gavin Medley (Santa Fe, N.M.) represented the U.S. in the Cadet Individual Men’s Epee division finishing 18^th, 48^th and 88^th respectively.

Tuesday, April 7, the third day of competition at the 2009 Cadet and Junior World Fencing Championships, is the scheduled day for competition in the Cadet Individual Men’s Foil and the Cadet Individual Women’s Epee.  Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.), Jeremy Goldstein (Westport, Conn.) and Wilfred Curioso (Barrington, R.I.) will carry the flag for the U.S. in men’s foil, while Katharine Holmes (Washington, D.C.), Grace Neveu (San Francisco, Calif.) and Sarah Collins (Palm Harbor, Fla.) will look to continue earning medals in women’s epee.

Still upcoming for the U.S. squad will be Olympian Gerek Meinhardt.  Meinhardt reached the round of 16 at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.  Also of note, (San Francisco, Calif./South Bend, Ind.).  Meinhardt, the youngest U.S. Olympic fencer ever at 18 years-of-age and now a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, will compete in the Junior Men’s Foil events on April 10Courtney Hurley (San Antonio, Texas), the sister of 2008 U.S. Olympian Kelley Hurley (San Antonio, Texas/South Bend, Ind.), will be competing in Junior Women’s Epee events also on April 10^th and 13^th.  Two coaches from the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team for Fencing, Ed Korfanty and Mike Pederson, are coaching the U.S. Junior and Cadet fencers at the 2009 Junior and Cadet World Championships.