Age And Experience In Rowing

HTBS’s special London correspondent Tim Koch writes in an e-mail from this morning that he has found two articles with “two contrasting stories of age and experience in top level rowing. One concerns the comeback of 38 year old Greg Searle [on the left] (1992 Olympic coxed pairs champion) at the World Rowing Championships which started today. His aim is to row at the 2012 Olympics at the age of 40. Searle is interviewed by Martin Cross in yesterday's The Guardian (click here to read the interview).

The other is a story that I missed at the time but have since found on the Henley Royal Regatta web-site, ‘A Henley win after just ten months’. It reads:

Henley’s finals day was a dream come true for the Huskies’ powerhouse, Ryan Schroeder. Not only did the rookie rower help power his crew from Washington University to an emphatic victory over Nereus’ students, of Holland, on the 4th of July but Schroeder won his coveted Temple Challenge Cup medal with a mere 10 month’s rowing experience behind him. ‘I only made the switch from baseball to rowing this September’, said the exhausted six-man. ‘This is better than my wildest dreams. I only started rowing in September. I’ve walked straight into a great boat and it feels fantastic to have brought it home on the 4th of July.’"

See also HTBS 12 April 2010 for more on Greg Searle’s comeback and earlier rowing career.