thestar.com: Rowing for Olympic gold

Under ultra-competitive coach Mike Spracklen, the world champion Canadian men's rowing eight are gunning for Olympic gold in Beijing. From thestar.com. Visit www.thestar.com/olympics for more news, photos and videos on the 2008 Games.

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Sports

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• Olympics
• Canada
• rowing
• sports
• Toronto
• Star

[juzu4me]

You don't know why rowing is in the Olympics? You've obviously never rowed a boat. As a yankee you probably think pistol shooting is more athletic. Or eating a hamburger. Wiping away the mayo from the side of your face and then grabbing the remote to watch Cops. That's your idea of exerting yourself. Chances are your ass is wider then the boat they're rowing is longer. Probably too many words for you to read, you're exhausted

[wwwaterwwater]

Funny that he now has a Beijing gold medal with that crew ...

[mcroberts101]

@juzu4me Dude, I'm American and i row. I know that their plently I of people here who have know idea what a real sport is. Believe me, I know. But you really don't have to generalize like that.

[SnailOfExplosions]

@juzu4me I have to say, Screw You man. You're generalizing that all Yankees are fat and have no idea what crew is about.

US Rower, awayyyyyy!!!

[lamefilms]

@8grimsby8 its called "italian rigging".. i think? im not quite sure about the name, but thats what i heard. But, the reason they do it is becuase there is a power discrepancy. by putting two starboards farther to the bow, they are compensating for a stronger port side, that way the coxswain doesnt constantly have the rudder at a slight angle, slowing the whole crew down. its just more efficient.

[SharathCK]

@juzu4me yeah that's cool but some of the best rowers in the world are yankees so stfu

[brandy15555]

@kelzo19 kelly you suck

[kelzo19]

@imthebest9876 Yeah of course thats why he doesn't row with the 8 any more. Oh, and the fact that he retired at Beijing.

[jamesdstudent]

I'm going to cop it for this post!! Spracklen is Smart. Watch the final in Sydney and excepting the Stroke, the ' visual technique' of this guys is just awful...But,,, I have never seen 8 blokes pull so damn hard. Excerpt "...these guys will kill themselves..."

So, not pretty, pretty ugly! but in an 8 it doesn't matter. Power curve's were consistent and catch and release at the same time. A very deserved win.

You could never win in any other boat rowing like this, but there not in any other!!

[jamesdstudent]

Dear CoffeeBreak, you are indeed correct. In slightly more technical terms, it's adjusting the 'torque" of each oarsman by adjusting their distance from/to the centre point of the shell, or, "System" as a whole. There are two fancy engineering words for this; The centre point of the shell which defines the rotational axis is also called the fulcrum. The existence of a Force torque Newton/Meter is also called a Moment.

Personally, Like yours better!!

Spracklen is Smart. "kill themselves"

[8grimsby8]

@CoffeeBreak794 thanks bro

[CoffeeBreak794]

@8grimsby8

It's called bucket rigging a boat. it's used to counteract to much strength on a certain side. instead of four seat pulling the boat around in three seat, one seat closer to bow, they instead move him into the middle so he can still crank it without upsetting the cox's course. I think that's right.