The Inside Scoop on the Whitewater Olympic Team Trials
By Davey Hearn
March 26,2004
Bethesda, Maryland - Whitewater US Olympic hopefuls strapped their slalom boats on their cars and began making their way to the East Race Waterway in South Bend, Indiana today for practice sessions beginning Sunday, March 28. Olympic Team Trials will be contested in South Bend, Friday, April 2nd through Sunday, April 4th.
Ladies and Gentlemen, start your calculators! Athletes earn an overall result in South Bend from their best two percentages of the winner’s score over three days of racing.
This earliest ever US National Team Trials is scheduled to allow the top 3 boats per class (C1, K1W, C2, K1) to travel to Athens, Greece to practice on the new Olympic course and compete in the World Cup and final Olympic qualifying event there April 22-25.
Athletes must count their South Bend Olympic Trials result along with points from a top fifteen finish at either last year’s World Championships in Augsburg, Germany, or the April Athens World Cup event towards US Olympic selection.
Leading the charge with Olympic selection points from the Augsburg Worlds 2003:
K1W Rebecca Giddens earned 14 points for her Bronze medal.
K1 Scott Parsons placed 8th for 8 points.
K1 Scott Mann was 13th for 3 points.
C2 Joe Jacobi and Matt Taylor placed 9th for 7 points.
Others go into South Bend with nothing in the bank; however, overall results at South Bend carry the heaviest weight in the Olympic selection criteria, with 30 points to the winner, and each place lower earning one less point. Are you with me so far?
USA earned one K1W position and one K1 position at last year’s World Championships. We have another chance to earn C1 and C2 Olympic starting positions at the World Cup/ Olympic Qualifier in Athens. USA is also in a good position to possibly earn a second K1 spot, based on combined Augsburg/Athens K1 results. Go USA!
Results in Athens next month will finalize the US Olympic Team. Top fifteen results will earn points to combine with South Bend Olympic Trials points. Racers will earn 25 points for winning, 22 for second, 19 for third, 17 for fourth, and each place lower earning one less point.
This means that for the first time ever, the Olympic Team will not be known with certainty after Olympic Trials. All of the top three boats will still be in the hunt to make the Olympic Team with a good Athens performance. This does not take anything away from the Indiana drama set to unfold.
Slalom racers train for months in the off-season in groups separated from one another geographically. National Team Coach Silvan Poberaj led a group of kayaks to natural water over the Chilean summer in January, others headed to sunny Penrith, Australia to train and compete on the 2000 Olympic course, National Canoe Coach Yves Narduzzi led a group of C-boaters to southern France for training and a race in Brittany, while other hardy souls braved the cold training at home.
Every spring the suspense builds as everyone wants to know who will bring the heat and pizzazz in the big races. Clues were provided (in a shocking fashion to some) last weekend as Scott Shipley, “in retirement” since summer 2002, sent a clear message with two wins in two days, stroking his custom-cut Galasport zebra striped P3 with impressively smooth technique down the falls of the mighty Nantahala River (Results Saturday & Sunday). Olympian, World Silver Medalist, and World Cup Champion three times, Shipley now balances a career and family life, training in his spare time.
Scott Parsons blistered the course as well, hot on Shipley’s heels less than a second back each day. Parsons is the top US K1 Olympic hopeful going into South Bend, having qualified the K1 Olympic berth for the USA last summer.
Scott Mann, 2003 National Team member, cleared penalty problems out of the way Saturday and was sharp Sunday to be part of a tightly packed K1 top three over two runs.
As the Scotts Shipley, Parsons and Mann swept the medals Sunday in Wesser, David Jacobson and Brett Heyl rounded out the top five. Other standouts in K1 were Lee Leibfarth and young Jim Wade, albeit on their home course.
Expect Parsons to accept the challenge that Shipley presents, along with Mann, Heyl, and dark horse Eric Giddens, 1996 Olympian.
C2s Jacobi/Taylor and Hepp/McCleskey traded wins in a preview to what is sure to be a dramatic contest in South Bend.
Hannah Larsen bested Sarah Leith closely but convincingly both days. Each hope to whittle away at the domination Rebecca Giddens has unleashed in the K1W class, with the World Championship in 2002 and the bronze last year.
Victors became the victims in the C1 class, giving but a glance at what may transpire in South Bend, as Saturday winner Ryan Bahn finished out of the medals Sunday, and Sunday victor Chris Ennis coming back from a lackluster fourth place Saturday. National Champion two years running, Sam Davis, placed third both days and Austin Crane earned a pair of silvers with the most consistent weekend of the four. Stay tuned for the C1 plot to unfold.
