Going for gold: the Olympic diary of rower James Chapman

Cut-out passes and Russian Military Martial Arts are not what is usually coupled with rowers in an Olympic preparation.

I wouldn’t have believed it six months ago. I wouldn’t have ten years ago, when first I started rowing after leaving high school. But now I believe it.

We’re into the last 20 days of training at the Australian Institute of Sport for this campaign, before we depart for our European hit-outs.

We’re trying to make ourselves the most prepared we can be prior to landing in China. We’re including cross-training exercises such as touch football (for co-ordination), cycling (for aerobic conditioning), and we’re even doing some Russian Martial Arts exercises for mobility and flexibility.

If you were going to compete at the Olympics, you would want to know you’ve covered everything off so that you have the best chance of winning. I want to know I’ve done as much as I can when I’m representing my country.

Right now we’re in Canberra, until Saturday 3rd May - in the Capital that’s getting increasingly cold, which means increasingly more layers of Lycra for on-water training sessions.

Despite the chill, it’s a great lake to train on, the Burley-Griffin.

It’s typically a flat lake (like most stretches of water), but it isn’t too windy, which is ideal for 24km rows.

When we get to our basecamp in Europe, we’ll row more and cross-train less. Alas, we don’t have access to the same facilities we have here in Canberra.

I should also introduce myself. My name is James Chapman and I’m 28 years old. I’ve been rowing since high school and made my first Senior National Team in 2003.

I compete in pairs, fours and eights, but once national selection is finalised, we only compete in one event because of the physical demands of even one race.

I’m from Sydney, born and raised, and have been training out of the AIS in Canberra for 2 years since I was selected in the Australian Eight for the 2006 World Championships.

I’m currently rowing in the 3 seat of the Eight (the seats are numbered 1-8, from the bow of the boat). We will trial several different combinations before Beijing in order to determine the fastest possible line-up.

I’ll introduce other members of the crew as we get closer to the Olympics.

Our spirit and enthusiasm for the Olympics was ignited last night whilst attending a buffet dinner hosted by the Chinese Ambassador, Zhang Junsai.

There were Chinese dignitaries, John Coates (AOC), Members of Parliament and others involved in the Olympic Movement. There was a smattering of athletes, swimmers, gymmies and rowers and uncharacteristically for these functions, enough food to re-fuel, since we just finished training in the weights room.

It was really motivational seeing the buzz around the torch, it gets you excited about competing.

Sometimes it is tough to get fired up for every session, all the time, but events like this are a flaming reminder to why we go through all the hard sessions.

Me, Rob de Castella and Tom Laurich at Wednesday night’s Olympic dinner hosted by the Chinese Ambassador.

Jiang Xiaoyu, left, executive vice-president of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee (or BOCOG), me and Tom Laurich.

** NOTE: The Australian Olympic men’s eight will feature in a story on Wide World of Sports on Channel 9 this Sunday, 27th April from 9.30am. Tune in! **

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