An Afternoon With the Medalists

The women’s eight rowing team has not lost an international competition in six years and this Olympics was no different, winning gold by nearly a boat length over Canada.

And now Amy and I have a little history with this crew.

Amy, because she partied with the medalists on Friday at the USA House, meeting several of the team, including Mary Whipple, the coxswain, Meghan Musnicki and Zsuzsanna Francia who is pictured here with Amy and me.

My story is slightly more painful. About 18 months ago there was a USOC event in Manhattan where we and other journalists were invited to meet some of the Olympic hopefuls. Get story and graphic ideas, contact information, etc.

Francia was there and while making the rounds I extended my hand to introduce myself. She looked at my name tag and then through a fierce smile she returned the handshake, which got firmer by the second. Then, just as the hamate bones in my right hand started to crumble, she said, “Why doesn’t the New York Times cover more rowing?”

When I managed through the pain to say, “That’s why I’m here” she released her death grip.

The bones are still healing.

Look at the picture of Meghan and Amy in the slideshow. These women, except for Mary, are very tall and very strong. Ask your physics teacher, tall is good; it’s all about leverage.

But of course being an ethical journalist, I couldn’t be strong-armed into covering these women.

So Bedel did.

He and Matt Orr did a really nice video on them. Mary may be half the size of these rowers but she makes up for it in spunk. These giants do what she says. Check out the video here: Rowing video

Amy has been busy seeing handball, beach volleyball and table tennis and taking in the A-list sights of London: Trafalgar Square, Churchhill’s War Rooms and, today, the Tower of London.

For me. it is mostly on to track and field. Was there last night when Team GB captured three gold medals, which made for a very loud and happy stadium.

Tonight it’s the marquee event: i’ll be at the men’s 100-meter dash.

Bolt? Gatlin? Blake?

They are still taking bets here in London.

As Jason Stallman, deputy sports editor running the show here, wrote in an email:

“one more thing: everyone here should go to the track on sunday night to watch the men’s 100 meters. once-in-a-lifetime sort of stuff. it starts at 9:50, and ends at 9:50.”

I’m on my way.