Who's In?

Check out friend Mary's blog, 50 Eggs. She posts about the recent New York Times article on the Chinese rowing program (China is going full-tilt after sports that offer multiple medals). Featured prominently is Igor Grinko, a former Soviet, then former U.S. sculling coach now a head coach in China. Many of my former rowing teammates rowed under him when he was coaching U.S. national team sculling prospects in Occoquan, Virginia, starting a couple of years before the 1992 Olympiad. It was a somewhat uncomfortable fit all round, but he was a coach with proven success, and there were high hopes here.

Mary has some personal experience with Igor. And she respectfully pulls no punches. He replies! Fascinating! 

What do you think? Is China doping its athletes? Did the Easties do it back in the day?  

Long silence. I blame the day job.  Honestly, I acknowledge it’s ridiculous to have such gaps in a so-called blog.

I’ve been meaning to point any passersby’s attention to an amusing post on rowing from one of my favorite blogs, The Disgruntled Chemist. (Ukrainian border guards arrested Belarus's national rowing team Tuesday for illegally entering the country on a flotilla of eight boats.) I think the DC must have rowed at one point. He points out a bonehead Yahoo.com choice of photo (of kayakers) to accompany a news story about rowing.

He does sum up the difference between canoeing, kayaking and rowing pretty well! But really this is just a good chance to mention this very likeable site.  

(I'm breaking the silence bit by bit here, clearing my throat....)