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Saturday, September 23
Men's eight failure the biggest surprise
Associated Press
PENRITH, Australia -- A thick morning fog that hung over the
Sydney International Regatta Center finally cleared for the medal
races. Yet U.S. boats never seemed to shake the haze.
A disappointing bronze medal in the lightweight women's double
sculls wound up the lone bright spot Sunday (Saturday night EDT)
for the Americans, who turned in two fifth-place finishes and two
sixths.
Instead of leaving Sydney with the most medals since taking
eight in Los Angeles, the United States -- the only team to qualify
in all 14 events - won just two bronze and a silver -- the worst
finish since 1972.
The U.S. performance was symbolized by the look of the women's
eight crew following its race. Lianne Nelson had her head in her
hands, while Sarah Jones, Amy Martin and Katie Maloney laid on
their backs. Medical workers briefly worked on Maloney.
The biggest flop was the men's eight, which had won three
straight world championships. With only one newcomer, hopes were
high for a gold and at least a medal. They wound up fifth, 6.08
seconds behind the champion British.
This is the third straight Olympics that the men's eight has
come home empty-handed, and that's a first. Americans won the event
11 of the first 14 times, including eight straight from 1920-56.
The really sad part is, the eight did the best of the four U.S.
also-rans.
The men's lightweight coxless four was last in its final, 8.41
seconds back. The women's eight was 10.43 seconds behind and also
last. The women's quadruple sculls was fifth, but by 10.68 seconds.
Another fifth came from the men's four on Saturday, when
Americans won a silver in the women's pair and bronze in the men's
pair. The other U.S. finalist, the women's double sculls, took
fourth.
U.S. boats have not won a gold medal since the boycott-tainted
1984 games and not beaten a full field since the men's eight legacy
ended in '64. Americans won three silvers and a bronze in Atlanta,
two silvers and a bronze in both Barcelona and Seoul.
The United States' futility looks even worse compared to one
woman: Elisabeta Lipa of Romania, who extended her own record for
women's rowing medals by being part of the gold-medal eight.
It was Lipa's fourth gold since '84. She also has two silvers
and a bronze. She was fifth in the double sculls Saturday. Romania
won three golds over the two-day finals, the most of any country.
The saving grace for the United States on Sunday was the bronze
won by Sarah Garner and Christine Collins, whose four world
championships make her the most-decorated U.S. female rower.
But even that had a tinge of what might've been, as they led the
first half of the race, only to drop to third following a surge by
Germany and Romania. The Romanians caught the Germans at the end
for the gold, while the Americans never responded.
Collins patted her partner's back after the finish, then shared
hugs and handshakes with the competition on the medals stand. As
the ceremony began, she smiled and waved to someone in the crowd,
cocked her head left and shrugged, still smiling, as if to say,
"Oh well."
"We pushed out in front and just tried to hold on," said
Collins, of Worcester, Mass. "We just didn't have the same kick at
the end as they did. We kind of knew through the week that it would
be tough."
"We both feel we had a strong race," said Garner, a Wisconsin
native living in Princeton, N.J.
Also Sunday, a Latvian rower who finished ninth in the men's
single sculls was expelled from the Olympics for testing positive
for steroids. Andris Reinholds was the fifth athlete kicked out
since the Sydney Games began.
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