Because it鈥檚 on home waters this summer, Rowing sa国际传媒 will do something it rarely does 鈥� send 26 of its A-list pullers to the Pan Am Games.
鈥淲e鈥檝e never raced at home wearing the Maple Leaf, so it鈥檚 going to be really special,鈥� said Conlin McCabe, named to the team Tuesday, along with fellow Elk Lake-based 2012 London Olympics silver-medallists Rob Gibson and Will Crothers.
Another 2012 London Olympian named from Elk Lake is Will Dean.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really motivating to train beside all these guys . . . we feed off each other,鈥� said Dean, NCAA champion in the varsity eight during his senior season in 2010 with the Pac-12 Cal-Berkeley Bears.
鈥淲e are very fortunate to receive the support we do in Victoria 鈥� a lot of amateur athletes around the world don鈥檛 have this.鈥�
As artificially elevated as the Pan Am Games are this time around for Canadian athletes, because they take place at home, the national team rowers haven鈥檛 lost sight of what really matters this year: The 2015 FISA world rowing championships Aug. 30 to Sept. 6 in Aiguebelette, France, which is also the Olympic qualifying regatta for Rio 2016.
鈥淓verything in the process this year is geared to being in optimum racing form in France for the Olympic qualifier,鈥� said Dean.
鈥淓verything up that point is practice.鈥�
Island rowers named to the Pan Am Games team are Dean, Gibson, Crothers, McCabe, Martin Barakso, Julien Bahain, Rosie DeBoef, Mike Evans, Liz Fenje, Saul Garcia-Alvarez, Jacob Koudys, Kai Langerfeld, Kate Sauks and Antje von Seydlitz.
The only A-listers missing are the women鈥檚 lightweight double of Patricia Obee and Lindsay Jennerich, the Victoria duo considered podium potential for Rio 2016, and the 2012 London Olympics silver-medallist Canadian women鈥檚 eight. Those two crews will remain in Europe, following two World Cup regattas this month, while the rest of the team flies from Europe to Toronto for the Pan Ams before flying back to prepare for the worlds and Olympic qualifiers in France.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had a great winter of training on Elk Lake, seven days a week, and all for less than 45 minutes of actual race time this summer,鈥� noted Crothers, before a national team weight-training session Tuesday at PISE.
