hati

This is insane.

Today, the Men's and Women's US Eights, (that's rowing) set the new world's fastest times in their qualifying heats today at the Olympics.

This is particularly insane to me because one of the members of the women's eight was a girl that I rowed with in high school. We were great friends and hung out all the time. She was always predicted to do big things, and now here she is. It's so bizarre to think back when you were just kids and had no idea what the future was going to bring.

Another factor in the insane-a-thon is that one of the guys in the men's eight is a Mr. John Watling. Before my senior year of college, my friend Austen and I rowed for the New York Athletic Club. One of the guys rowing with us was this dude trying to get back into rowing after having taken three years off. He told us he was good in college, but when he started rowing with us, he sucked. I mean, straight up was not good. Then he started talking about how he was going ot try and get back in shape enough to get on the U.S. Squad. Ha! Right! Austen and I had plenty of teammates trying to do the same thing, but they had taken no years off and were in a lot better shape than this guy. Well, this guy was John Watling, and he proved us so wrong it's almost funny.
What's especially humorous is that at the end of that summer of training, the three of us rowed in a four with with one other guy. We set a record for the most medals won at Canadian Henley, and at that time, Austen and I were the two best guys in the boat. That, I assure you, is very long ago now. I can't even row for twenty minutes without tearing up my baby soft hands. John, on the other hand, is out there racing at the Olympics in the U.S.'s premire boat going faster than anyone has ever gone before.

I'm crossing my fingers they can keep it up. Last Olympics, the eight was favored to win after having won the past three World Championships. They ended up totally choking and several men felt like they had wasted a good portion of their lives. It was very sad.

Maybe this is the time when they do it. A lot of other guys came out of retirement for this thing, which, as I said before, is not an easy thing to do. I cannot even imagine living through one day of the pain that used to make up my existence for nealy seven years. No fucking way.

I feel bad for two guys that I rowed with in college who are in the men's quadruple sculls event (sculling is two oars, sweeping is one. Sculling has the single, the double, and the quad. Sweeping has the pair, the four, and the eight.) I'm proud of those guys for making the boat, but the quad is usually the U.S.'s weakest event and it looks like those guys will be eliminated early.

But, here's to Athens!

God, I love the Olympics.