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Thursday, August 31
Cipollone not your average rower
Scripps Howard News Service
At 5-foot-1, 118-pounds, Peter Cipollone will
easily be one of the smallest men among the U.S. Olympic contingent.
But Cipollone wasn't selected as the coxswain of the U.S. eight-man
rowing crew for his athletic ability.
"The rowers, they get put through hell," said Cipollone, who has
been on three world champion crews and was named to his first Olympic
team Tuesday. "The coxswain, we don't do anything physically. We're
just worried."
So what does the coxswain do exactly besides catch a ride on the
water?
Let the 29-year-old with a bachelor's degree in quantitative
economics from California tell you.
"It's much more of a mental game," said Cipollone. "When you're
reaching, you're really strategizing on where the other crews are. In
the 1997 world championships we came off the line and were in fourth.
How do you put that in terms to the crew so they don't get nervous?
How do you keep them relaxed like a race horse?
"You look at it as to what fact do you present to them? It has to
be true. And it has to be positive. I think instead of saying, 'You're
in fourth,' I said, 'You're five seats off the lead.'"
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