WORDS ERIK ROWAN
PHOTOGRAPHY ZACH FRANZEN
In December 2018, I worked at an Under 23 talent identification camp in San Diego. At the camp, I noticed a lack of male US rowers in attendance, despite promising results by US crews at international regattas in the past 12 months. This sparked my interest in crunching some numbers and finding out why. The US men’s rowing team have not won an Olympic Gold medal since 2004, and there has been talk amongst the rowing community that the increase in male international rowers in top US college crews during this time is depriving male US rowers from being coached by top coaches (Moran and Hewitt, 2017). Consequently, I wanted to understand what impact an increasing number of male international rowers in the US college system will have on male US rowers.