Going for gold: the Olympic diary of rower James Chapman (Part III)

We’ve been in a whirlwind since arriving in Germany, and not just because we’ve been pumping out some long sessions on the water after a long flight from Australia last weekend.

Despite the excitement and sentimentality of rowing on the 1972 Olympic Rowing Course, a 20km session on a 2km course means turning the boat around every seven minutes for 90 minutes. It can make you dizzy!

James has been selected in the Australian men’s eight for the Beijing Olympics. He will be producing a diary for The Roar in the lead-up to the start of the Games on August 8.

The other part of the mid-week training circus is trying to navigate through the hundreds of boats on the water at the same time. It seems every country wants to train at the same time, and this means every boat class, from single sculls to eights, jockeying for lane space to train in. The course becomes a washing machine of bouncing boats, splashing oars and linguists hurling abuse in their native tongue, gesticulating wildly… not too dissimilar from driving in Sydney really. It’s all part of the game.

We are 48 hours away from our first international race as a crew and the wait is starting to show. Different athletes prepare for raceday differently and the Australian eight is no different. Some of the guys have watched close to 20 episodes of The Sopranos, others are immersed in books while the youngest, Jeremy Stevenson, and the eldest, James Tomkins, are both playing the same computer game on their laptops. It’s great to see that the crew mates are relating, despite a 21-year age differential.

For distraction and relaxation, I’m trying to write emails to friends and read a book that my Uncle Peter gave me. However, I also set aside some time to think about what my job is come race-time. While I try not to over-analyse my role that can lead to unnecessary tension, I try to calmly visualise my raceday preparations and execution.

There are 10 eights entered in this first World Cup in Munich. Five of those – Great Britain, China, Poland, Germany and Australia – have qualified for the Olympics, and the other five – Italy, France, Netherlands, Croatia and Switzerland – are aiming to snare the one Beijing Olympics wild-card spot available in June at the third World Cup.

The two countries not here, and probably considered the two favourites for Beijing, are USA and current world champions Canada. They don’t tend to race in Europe until the Lucerne regatta.

We are looking to answer a lot of questions in our first hit-out on Friday. The biggest question is: are we on track for Beijing? This doesn’t mean we have to win here in Munich, but we want to know that the technical and physical hours that we’ve logged so far are laying down the foundations for the desired result in China. We are training heavily through this week, with the intention of no physical taper leading into the races. This is geared towards our long-term, “big-picture” preparation. We have heats on Friday, repechage on Saturday and finals on Sunday.

We’ve also been keeping up our stretching, mobility and core-strength sessions as you can see from the photos. We do what we can, even if it means using the hotel hallway. I think some of the other hotel guests think we’re an interpretive dance troupe, but we know what’s important… even if it attracts plenty of odd stares!

Talking of bizarre, some of the guys were a bit miffed by the lunch served at the rowing course today – a zucchini and faux-chicken curry. The Germans are great at running events like major international rowing regattas, but the consensus was that when it comes to re-fuelling, they should stick to what they do best: pork, sauerkraut and beer swilling from ridiculously over-sized beer mugs (that we can only watch others consume).

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James Chapman’s Photos
James Tomkins & Tony Rice (physiologist/scientist) enjoying latte between sessions in Dachau

Dave Dennis (bow seat) in mid-back arch

Me working my core…doing ‘hundreds’…apparently a great exercise if I ever have to give birth

Tom Laurich doing ‘hundreds’.

Dave Dennis – another exercise, not sure what its called…we call it the Dave Foster

Me passing time doing emails

The Munich rowing course…with massive 250 metre concrete stand…perfect for a 1972 German hosted Olympic games