Winter training is complete, final selections have been made and the regular season’s competition concluded; the long and rocky road to Rio is ended. Only hard mileage and final tweaks lie between Olympic rowers and their destiny now.
Brutal, black and white, definitive; there is nothing like the Olympics. For the athletes taking part it is the opportunity to see four years of both work and sacrifice come to fruition - possibly realising their dreams in front of billions. For those of us sofa-bound, the high stakes, high emotions, despair and euphoria make for a heady cocktail. The drama is intoxicating and I find myself involuntarily unable to make it through any Olympic medal ceremony entirely dry-eyed. The 2016 games will be especially poignant for our sport for two good reasons. Firstly, the sport will find itself in an unfamiliar position this summer - thrust fleetingly under the worlds gaze, the rowing will take centre stage in Rio with racing being staged on Lake Rodrigo De Freitas at the heart of city. Secondly, with FISA look set to make sweeping changes to the Olympic rowing format and certain key events looking likely for the chop from the Olympic rowing program come Tokyo 2020, it may well be the last of Olympic rowing as we know it. Either way, I cannot wait. Roll-on Rio...