Lightweights in a Heavyweight Game

Ruckman and Tucker in Lucerne, US lightweight representatives
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Lightweight rowing. Those athletes described by Brad Lewis as ?skeletons?with deep-set eyes ? a special breed of oarsmen.? This special breed that are required to race under a specified weight have been both welcomed and controversial to rowing’s racing programme. The class was initially introduced to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people and was added to the World Championships in 1974 for men and in 1985 for women.

After a close vote by the FISA Congress in 1993, it appeared in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1996. The three events, a men’s four and double and women’s double, replaced the open weight events of the men’s coxed pair and four and the women’s four.

Lightweight rowing came under scrutiny again last year when the Programme Commission of the International Olympic Committee recommended that there should not be weight category events outside combat sports and weightlifting. The recommendation was overturned by the IOC Executive Board and lightweight rowing events continued.

As the 2004 Olympic Games move into view, international regattas this season have seen an increase in the number of entries in Olympic class events. This is especially apparent in lightweight events. For example the lightweight women’s double outnumbered participation of any other women’s event and the lightweight men’s double consistently draws more entries than most other male events.

Two of the contestants in the men’s lightweight double are Americans Greg Ruckman and Steve Tucker. They opened their 2003 international season by finishing first at the Munich World Cup and third in a stronger field at Lucerne.

The pair came together late last year when they recognised their common goal. Both are Olympic veterans from 2000 but this is the first time they have attempted the Olympics together.

Ruckman is a rowing nomad. For many of his rowing years a 1978 Buick with roof rack and single was home as he worked towards the 2000 Olympics. Selected in 2000 for the United States lightweight four, his crew finished sixth at Sydney. Ruckman was not satisfied. But spurred by mounting debt he decided to turn his superior physiology to a more lucrative and popular sport ? cycling. Packing his bike and one bag Ruckman moved to San Francisco, California and had a job by the next day as a cycle courier. ?I didn’t tell them I’d neither cycled or knew San Francisco,? says Ruckman who remembers sending a businessman who asked him where the main street was, off in the wrong direction.

Ruckman was picked up by a semi-pro cycling team having no cycling background and never having raced. ?They liked developing people and saw me as an oddity, a curiosity.? The team’s risk paid off. In Ruckman’s first race, a hill climb, he equalled the course record and within two months had moved from the lowest racing category, (cat. 5) rising two levels to category 3. After finishing second in the prestigious Mt. Washington Hill Climb Ruckman felt he could make it onto a top domestic pro-team. ?In one season of cycling I was better off financially than I ever had been rowing.?

Two weeks later Ruckman was hit head on by a car while out cycling. ?I always knew there were risks in cycling,? Ruckman had already witnessed someone die in a race, ?and after my accident I decided I wouldn’t make a career of racing bikes.? With that Ruckman ended his cycling career and ?got a real job.?

For a year he stayed out of sport. But the feeling of emptiness in not medalling at Sydney still hounded him and he had noticed the success a former rowing partner, Steve Tucker, was achieving. Tucker had finished eleventh in the lightweight double at Sydney but in 2002 scored bronze in the single at the World Championships.

The duo decided to pair up. Ruckman again packed up his life and moved to join Tucker.

Tucker is a homebody. The 34-year-old physics graduate describes his hobbies as renovating his house in Boston, Massachusetts. Unlike Ruckman, Tucker has remained in Boston since moving there for university in the late 1980’s. Over fraternity house drinking games Tucker was introduced to the erg at the Thursday night regular ?row ?til you blow? party. This inspired Tucker to join the university crew where his team notched up an array of ?bad results? in the competitive world of United States collegiate rowing.

Tucker decided he could do better. So, after graduating, he stayed in Boston to continue rowing. This is when he discovered his size was a disadvantage. At a natural 69 kilos and 171cm tall Tucker was frequently overlooked for selection camps in favour of taller teammates. So Tucker changed to the single. Within a year he was in the top ten in the country. Within two years he was second. At the 1997 World Championships he finished fourth.

Predominantly self coached, Tucker uses the try-something-and-see-if-it-works approach to rowing. ?Some of my ideas are a little different from what a coach may suggest,? says the physicist, who is currently dabbling in ?intermittent hypoxia? a method to gain the advantage of altitude training while not at altitude.

The duo continue to train in Boston as they prepare for the Milan World Championships. They are not too concerned with the Italians handy win at the World Cup in Lucerne where the Americans finished third. ?There’s quite a few areas for us to improve on ? our pacing, the first ten strokes, technique issues ?? says team leader Tucker.