THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Women’s Singles Gold Medals to Canada at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Porter: “I have had an interesting relationship with Mike. He’s an awesome coach. I have nothing but praise to bestow on him for sure . . . in general, but that being said, we’ve had our moments now and again when we’ve butted heads. “Back in the eight, I think we were all on board, so we just sort of took everything as you have to as part of a team and just do what he says and not argue and not talk back . . . things he doesn’t particularly relish, I’m sure. I was pretty green back then anyway, so I didn’t have much to argue about. Most everything I have learned about rowing was learned through him basically. “Then when I moved to the single, there were moments when I would challenge him on certain things, whereas I would never have dared to do that back in the eights days. “We had a few moments when he took a disagreement as a personal attack, which he can be prone to do. I look back on those days with fondness anyway. He was a great guy to work under. “He’s amazing. Sometimes we’d have a difference of opinion, but we’d always have a good chat about it one way or the other, and I usually came out of it enlightened.”6799 Laumann: “I had a pretty difficult time in 1994 and 1995, double false-starting at the 1994 World Championships, taking a cold medication in the spring of 1995.6800 They were really rough years. I really struggled with my confidence in 1995 all through the season, pulled it together, had a great finish to the season in absolutely horrific conditions in Finland.6801 “Then 1996 was a very solid year. It was a good year in training. It was a good year as far as managing my injuries. I had a fabulous start to the season in Duisburg, beating Yekaterina Khodatovich.6802 Everybody had told me about how amazing she was, and she was amazing, and yet at the first major race of the season I was able to beat her, not by a lot, but I had a great start to the season.”6803 Laumann’s 1996 Technique By 1996, the change in Porter’s and Laumann’s technique was unmistakable. The force application of both scullers had devolved in the direction that repeated historical precedent has taught us to expect,6804 namely toward segmented-force Kernschlag. Laumann’s leg compression at the entry had substantially increased, and her leg drive had become so explosive and jarring that she would visibly rise off her seat, causing her to slightly shoot her tail at the beginning of each pullthrough. The second half of the pullthrough was characterized by a second separate aggressive effort of back, shoulders and arms all the way to her signature -40° layback. 6801 second to Maria Brandin of Sweden. Annelies Bredael, who had beaten Laumann in 6799 Porter, op. cit., 2010 6800 Laumann was stripped of a Gold Medal in the 1995 Pan American Games in the women’s quads after testing positive for pseudoephedrine, which she claimed to have accidentally ingested due to a mix-up in what cold remedy was safe to use. 1992 in Barcelona, was third. 6802 24 years old, 6’1” 185cm 176lb. 80kg of SK VS Minsk in Belarus. She was 1990 Junior World Champion in the singles. She had won Bronze in the women’s doubles for the Soviet Union in 1991 and Bronze in the women’s quads for the Unified Team in 1992. She did not make the final of the women’s singles in 1995. Today she is better known by her married name Yekaterina Karsten. 6803 Laumann, op. cit., 2010 6804 See Chapter 18. 1881
