THE SPORT OF ROWING national rowing centers8006) was hired to win more Olympic Gold for the United States sweep women. The 1996 Olympics on American soil were six years away. In 1991, Buschbacher’s first season of coaching the U.S., the record for his squad was sixth in the pairs, fourth in the eights and Silver in the fours. At the 1992 Olympics, the result was sixth in the eights, Bronze in the pairs and Silver in the fours. Then came the inevitable retirement of many veterans, with younger athletes coming in to rebuild the National Team for the push to Atlanta. Annie Kakela, who joined the squad in 1993 after graduating from Dartmouth: “The camp system was just starting to take shape over the club feeder system, and having a year-round coach, I think, was relatively new, but people were really fired up about having an East German as coach. “Hartmut could be very challenging and sometimes negative, and for some athletes that was difficult to handle, but I think that a lot of athletes liked the fact that they had such a dedicated coach.”8007 Buschbacher seemed to have a particular affinity for the small-boat events. In 1991 and 1992, his fours had placed second to Al Morrow’s Canadians, the dominant women’s sweep team of the era,8008 and half of his ‘91 Four went on to earn Olympic Bronze in the pairs in ‘92. As he began the new 1996 Olympic quadrennial, Buschbacher made the coxless- four his priority boat and, following the Canadian example, had the four and pair double up in the eight in 1993. All that remained from the ‘92 Olympic squad were coxswain Yasmin Farooq and three magnificent rowers, Mary and 8006 www.sport-komplett.de. See Chapter 119. 8007 Kakela, personal conversation, 2008 8008 See Chapter 134. Buschbacher as a Coach Just as with fellow former GDR elite coach Jürgen Grobler in Great Britain,8011 Hartmut Buschbacher’s real strength seemed to be the scientific training background that he brought from his education in the peerless German Democratic Republic sports system. He excelled in training crews and motivating them for the highest levels of international competition. Kakela: “In ‘93, I felt Hartmut did a really good job preparing a pretty green crew. A lot of us were new that year. He did a great job preparing us, putting us through workouts that gave us a lot of confidence. We didn’t know what to expect, but we knew we had worked really hard.”8012 Fuller: “I had come to the team as a total novice. My first spring race had been in 1988 in Santa Barbara. In 1991, he put me on the National Team in the 2-seat of the 8009 Fuller’s married name is Amy Fuller Kearney, and she is presently Head Coach of the UCLA Women’s Crew. To avoid confusion during this chapter, I refer to her by her maiden name as she was known during that era. 8010 Fuller Kearney, personal conversation, 2008 8011 See Chapter 136. 8012 Kakela, op. cit. Elizabeth McCagg, 6’2” 188cm 170+lb. 77kg twin sisters originally from Lakeside School in Seattle, then third-generation Harvard University rowers, Class of ’89; and Amy Fuller, a 6’0” 183cm 181lb. 82kg graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Class of ‘90, the 1989, 1991 and 1992 CRASH-B Ergometer World Champion. Buschbacher put Fuller in the four and the McCaggs in the pair. Amy Fuller:8009 “I went from a youngster in 1991-92 to one of the veterans in ‘93 . . . but I wasn’t really a veteran. I was still very young. My first 2,000 meter erg test had only been in 1988.”8010 2230