I watched Olympic rowers train. They left me stunned
I’m at the home of the Australian women’s rowing team and see Georgie Rowe, who appears so devoid of energy that it’s like she’s run a marathon in the desert, shuffling down the stairs. “Thank God that’s over,” the Tokyo Olympian mumbles at a tick past 5pm.
Rowe is among the 25 squad members closing out a typical day at their Penrith training base.
Their training for the day began at 7.20am, when they set off on the Nepean River for a 22-kilometre row. The dew point is high, there’s hardly a cloud in the sky, and over the two-hour period they’re on the water the temperature soars into the high 20s.
Keogh and I cruise along within a skimming stone of the three pairs, the coach relaying instructions through a loudspeaker with a clear and calm voice. The pairs we’re coasting down the river with are “sweeping”, as opposed to “sculling”, meaning each rower has one oar each instead of two. The coach uses terms like “postural awareness”, “connection to the boat”, “long strokes” and “relaxation in the hands”, and they tick along at “stroke 20”, meaning 20 strokes per minute.
These aerobic weapons eyeing the Paris Olympics are so fit that at stroke 20 they’re only operating at about 60 per cent of their heart rate. For that reason, I won’t see anyone spewing up their brekky, but like any other training day, this day is sure to be brutal.
One challenge is physical. As they dip their oars in the river, plough through litres of water with the strength of their arms, shoulders and legs, and flick their wrists — one pattern of movement that’s repeated about 2400 times throughout this two-hour period — their muscles become increasingly heavy and weary. Their lungs work like relentless machines, sucking in crisp air at the foot of the Blue Mountains as oxygen is shuttled to pumping muscles in all parts of their bodies. They’re not going flat chat and gasping for air, but the long grind wears them down. They’re certainly not “merry, merrily” rowing their boats “gently down the stream”.
Another challenge is technical. “Me and Paige are really focusing on the process of arms first, then body, but really stretching the knees to hold the length into the front,” Cox explains. “As for the stroke, people always say it’s a really complicated way to put an oar in the water, but … there’s so much that goes into it, so much that can actually slow down the boat, so many opportunities to speed up the boat.”
And the mental challenge — the kind that makes for long faces suppressed by fitness-induced torture — mustn’t be underestimated. There’s little more than an expanse of river water entertaining the rowers’ eyes as they plug away for two hours. The river and surrounding bushland are gorgeous, and there’s a local eagle that greets the rowers, but a 22-kilometre row is a test of sanity. Come the end of a typical week, they’ve racked up 160-180 kilometres on the water, or about 14 hours. Gym work, and a huge amount of it, is additional.
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