THE SPORT OF ROWING FISA 1999 Video Canada Women’s Coxless-Pair 2000 Olympic Fourth Place, Penrith Stroke Theresa Luke 5’11” 180cm 172lb. 78kg, Bow Emma Robinson 6’0” 183cm 154lb. 70kg 0°, +35° to -20°, 0-9, 0-10, 0-10 Classical Technique Schubschlag Long loping rhythm to send at release. Classical to Modern Orthodox and presumably from Schubschlag the 1,000, the American Pair was extremely courageous in the second 1,000. Though Romania was not to be denied, the contest between Australia and the U.S. was not decided until the last few strokes. While obviously fit, one might still classify the Americans’ performance down the course as front-loaded. In 1996, the Americans remained among the leaders throughout and challenged the leading Australians late in the race, rowed the fastest last 500 of the field and closed to within 0.39 as the two boats crossed the finish line. One might classify this performance down the course as emphasizing the race as a whole. Did the two approaches to technique play a major role? One can only speculate. Kraft: “Individually, I came to Hartmut’s camp in 1994 having only a 6964 Kraft, personal correspondence, 2011 The evolution of Karen Kraft from to Kernschlag encourages certain speculation. In 2000, after leading by half a length to summer of coaching at a U.S. Development Camp. Missy and I were seldom in boats that were actually coached by Hartmut, so our technique was more ‘intuitive’ than coached, not necessarily a good thing, and perhaps why our boat between ‘94 and ‘96 was so ‘weeble wobbly.’ “I think what made our style successful, whichever style to which we had committed at the time, was that we really allowed the hull to teach us a lot. As stroke, I could watch the stern (dipping, ticking, porpoising, changing direction) and make appropriate changes if Missy was pulling me around or if I was dropping my body at the catch, etc. At bow, Missy was an astute observer of how my body position changed through the drive/recovery and could cox me out of bad tendencies. Set, direction and trim were all data points we used in addition to speed to help gauge our improvement, and we weren’t afraid to use hull shapes/designs that challenged us.”6964 1944
