USA Olympic selection under way

Michelle Guerette is the women’s single sculler. Guerette has been the United States representative in this event since 2005 and in that time she has earned two World Championship bronze medals. If she wins a gold medal at the Olympics it will be the first one for the USA in the women’s single.

The women’s pair will be raced by Anna Cummins (nee Mickelson) and Portia McGee. This will be Cummins’ third Olympics while McGee is a first-time Olympian. Cummins has a silver medal from the women’s eight in Athens.

Josh Inman and Matt Schnobrich have been selected for the men’s pair. Both Inman – who measures in at 203cm – and Schnobrich are competing at their first Olympic Games. Inman has a World Champion title (2005) from the men’s eight while Schnobrich has been a regular member of the USA men’s sweep squad for the last three years.

The men’s double will contain Elliot Hovey and Wes Piermarini. Hovey trialled for the national junior team in 2000 and 2001 but, like Piermarini, he has never been on the US national team and, thus, neither of them has ever competed internationally.

The women’s double has already been selected and is made up of Ellen Tomek and Megan Kalmoe. The duo are off to their first Olympic Games. They were given the nod after finishing fourth at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup.

The first Paralympic team selection has been made. The legs trunk and arms mixed four will be made up of coxswain Simona Chin, Jamie Dean, Jesse Karmazin, Tracy Tackett and Emma Preuschl. The USA has qualified in all four Paralympic events and the final three teams will be selected at the USRowing National Championships 27 – 29 June.

Selection for the US Olympic team is a complex process with USRowing already having to deal with litigation. The system of selection is in a 28-page document. The USRowing press release explains:

“The 2008 U.S. Olympic Rowing Team will be named in several stages. In addition to the four crews that were selected during this regatta, six crews including the men’s four, lightweight men’s four, men’s quadruple sculls, women’s quadruple sculls, men’s eight and women’s eight are camp-selected boats that will be named by their respective national team coaches on June 27. The U.S. has yet to qualify three boats for the 2008 Olympic Games – the men’s single sculls, lightweight women’s double sculls and lightweight men’s double sculls. USRowing will send a representative in each of those boat categories to the 2008 Olympic Qualification Regatta scheduled for June 15-18 in Poznan, Poland.”