Earlier this summer, rising senior Chris Leonard (White Plains, N.Y.) of the Marist men's crew team competed at the 2013 World University Games in Kazan Russia, serving as the coxswain for the United States' Eight boat. The following is a first-person account of Leonard's time with Team USA, from the point of the being selected as one of the final boat members in Boston through his last day in Russia.
After about a month and a half of constant competition, selection was finally over. At the end of the process, we were left with nine first time national team rowers. Our coaches brought us into the conference room at Community Rowing (where we were training) and talked to us about what to expect. They warned us that at some point over the next few weeks, something wouldn't go according to plan. All of us were just excited to get to Russia and thought nothing of the warning.
The last weekend of June was spent training at Mercer Lake rowing out of the USRowing boathouse. We were working with Bruce Smith, the head coach of CRI, Kane Laren and Matt Lehrer (our normal coaches) were planning on meeting us at the airport on July 2 for our flight to Russia. On the morning of the 2nd, the nine of us woke up and made our way to JFK to wait for the coaches to arrive. I received a call from Matt around noon saying that their flight was delayed due to fog but they should be there in plenty of time. As the hours went by, the coaches' flight had still not left from Boston. They finally arrived but our flight had already left. Kane found a hotel close to the airport and we got out flight changed to the next day.
When we got to the airport the next morning, the coaches gave us some more bad news. In order to adjust to the 8-hour time difference, we were only allowed 30 minutes of sleep throughout the trip. This wouldn't have been bad on the first trip but because of the flight change, we now had a 9-hour layover in Moscow.
The first leg of the trip wasn't terrible. The 10-hour flight to Moscow was uneventful. I was fairly comfortable; the same couldn't be said for Jim, my 6'10” teammate sitting next to me. We arrived in Moscow and got through customs without any issue. We all ate when we landed and then wandered around the airport. After the first few hours had passed, the coaches told us to go find some stairs to run because we were missing a day of practice.
After an hour of running stairs, we were exhausted. Everyone needed sleep but we knew we wouldn't be able to for a few more hours. We boarded our plane to Kazan for the last leg of the trip. Trying to stay awake for the hour and a half flight was almost impossible but we were all excited to finally arrive. When we landed, we were all a bit overwhelmed. There were tons of people waiting for us, taking pictures, getting our luggage and helping us around the airport. When we finally made our way through the crowd, we were told to go through the bus. We were lead through two rows of cheering people and got on our bus to the athlete village.
When we arrived, we were all a bit surprised by how tight security was. It was like being in the airport again. Our bags were scanned and no outside food or drink was allowed in the village. The security was nice and made us feel completely safe inside of the village. We went to the USA dorm to drop off our baggage and made our way to the dining hall.
The dining hall was organized by the same company that did the food for the London Olympics. The hall was massive and filled with food from all over the world. Coca-Cola also sponsored the games so there were refrigerators full of Coke, Coke Light (diet Coke), Fanta, Powerade, orange juice, Nestea and water everywhere we went. After lunch, we made our way to the course to get our boat all set up.
The next day, we woke up early to head to the course for practice. In America, coxswains use something called a Cox-Box. This is a microphone that plugs into wiring in the boat that allows the rowers throughout the boat to hear what I'm saying. Our boat didn't have any wiring so the coaches were scrambling around trying to find something in order to have an effective practice. Unfortunately, we were told that they don't use anything like that in Russia and we were out of luck. The coaches told me take the boat out for a practice, only say what I need and make sure that I don't lose my voice.
While I was on the water, Kane found one of the media reps named Maxime who said he would be able to rig something up for us. We wouldn't have it in time for the second practice but we would have it for the race in the morning. Kane took my Cox-Box and went off to try to rig something up.
On race day, we woke up early and prepared to head to the course. The streets on the way to the course were lined with people cheering and waving flags. The experience of international racing was finally becoming real. We got to the course a few hours before the race and met the coaches by the boat. They had rigged up a wiring system and everything worked great. I went to go weigh-in and the rowers began to warm up.
We launched about an hour before the race in order to get a long warm-up on the water. After about five minutes on the water, the speakers cut out. Another setback before the race. There was no time to fix anything so we went in without sound. The coaches told me to push the warm-up as long as I could and with about 10 minutes until race time, I made my way to the start. I pushed the timing a bit too much and I was issued a warning for being late to the line.
At this point, everyone was flustered. This was the first international race for all of us, most of the boat couldn't hear what I was saying and we were just issued a warning. We were extremely slow off the line and took a while to get into a rhythm. We finished last in the heat and left much to be desired. We had to put this race behind us and have a great race tomorrow or we wouldn't make the final.
The next morning was very different. Everyone was focused. We knew that if we didn't perform, we would go home disappointed. The coaches had fixed the wiring and assured me that it would work this time. Just to be safe, I wouldn't turn on the Cox-Box until we were at the start line. We hit the water with an intensity that we hadn't had before. The warm-up was our best yet and everyone was feeling confident.
The starter began to poll the crews. “Norway, Ukraine, Netherlands, Belarus, United States”. One of us wouldn't be in the final and after our race yesterday, we were definitely the underdogs. The horn went off and we hit it hard from the first stroke. At 500 meters in, a quarter of the way through the race, we were right in the mix. By the 1,000-meter mark, we were about two seconds off of the Netherland and Belarus, even with Ukraine and had opened up a lead on Norway. As the race went on, Netherlands and Belarus pulled away but we stayed with Ukraine who had almost won our heat the day before. We crossed the line two seconds ahead of Norway and made it into the finals.
We woke up Monday morning thinking we had nothing to lose. We were in the finals and had already done better than most people expected. We were a young crew, averaging 21 years old. The next youngest crew was Norway at 24. Everyone we raced had national team experience and there were a few Olympians scattered throughout the boats. We raced it hard, hung with the pack until about halfway through the race and then began to fall off the pace. We finished sixth overall. It was bittersweet for us. Of course we wanted to do better but we knew we left it all on the course and performed at a high level.
Now that racing was over, most of the boat was heading back to the States. Five of us had asked to stay longer and we got permission to stay in the village until July 15.
We spent the next week going to as many events as possible. We would wake up early and make it to three or four different events each day. We saw sports that we had never seen before. Most of the sports were filled with Olympians from all over the world. It was an unbelievable experience.
Kane told us that we had to go watch synchronized swimming before we left. None of us had ever seen it in person and some of the guys definitely wanted to go watch beach volleyball instead. We ended up listening to coach and we were all extremely impressed. It is definitely an unbelievable sport to watch and I give those girls a ton of credit.
I definitely made some life-long friends throughout camp and at the games. Camp taught me a ton of things that I hope to bring back to Marist this year. I'm looking forward to getting back to work at school and racing hard against some of the guys I met this summer. Hopefully I'll be with a few of them at Under 23 camp next summer.
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