U.S. Women's Rowing Team to begin Olympic preparation in Seattle

The U.S. National Women’s Rowing Team is beginning preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games at a winter training camp hosted by Seattle’s Pocock Rowing Center on Portage Bay from January 2 to 10. Twenty-six athletes including five Olympians and eight World Champions will visit Seattle for the eight-day camp.

Tom Terhaar, U.S. Head Women’s Rowing Coach, selected Seattle because its water and wind conditions are similar to the Olympic rowing venue in Schinias, Greece near Athens. Seattle’s mild winter climate is also a benefit to U.S athletes who battle frozen water on their home rowing course in Princeton, New Jersey. “We look for a mild winter-time climate, a strong rowing centre, and conditions that simulate competitive environments,” said Terhaar. “The Lake Washington Ship Canal and Portage Bay are ideal for winter rowing preparation.”

In addition to using the elite rowing facilities at the Pocock Rowing Center, the U.S. athletes will conduct daily off-water workouts at the Washington Athletic Club (www.wac.net) in downtown Seattle and will be hosted by families of local junior rowers. “Seattle has a long history of supporting the sport of rowing – particularly U.S. national teams,” said Terhaar. “The Pocock Rowing Center is one of the best rowing facilities in the country and has one of the largest, consistently productive sculling programs with a U.S. National Team coach.”

Following the Seattle camp, the U.S. team will continue winter training at the ARCO Olympic Training Center near San Diego in Chula Vista, California, before returning to Princeton in the spring to prepare for the Olympic Team selection process.

Biographies of U.S. National Team members can be found at http://www.usrowing.org/itemdisplay.asp?id=162
See also http://www.pocockrowing.org