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Disappointing finish Men's eight lead U.S. fizzle in finalsLatest: Monday October 09, 2000 04:55 PM
PENRITH, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- The United States' men's eight crew completed a disappointing Olympics on Sunday by failing to win a medal. The U.S. and three-time world champion placed fifth, the same finish as in Atlanta four years ago. It was a huge failure for a boat that was supposed to revive an American tradition in racing's most glamorous event. "This past week has been the toughest of my life," said Dave Simon, the only new crew member on a boat carrying four members of all three world champions and four from the last two. "We thought we had our problems fixed, but with such little time..." The women's eight was almost as big of a flop as the men, finishing last by more than 10 seconds. After the finish, three crew members laid on their backs and another put her head in her hands, all wondering how their silver-medal squad from last year's worlds did worse than their fourth-place finish in Atlanta. "It never came together," said Amy Fuller, a member of the last three U.S. women's eight. "I can't even pinpoint what went wrong. In '92, when we got the silver, it was a lot of work but it just clicked off from the start. Both in '96 and today, it felt off from the first stroke." The lone saving grace Sunday was a bronze medal in the lightweight women's double sculls. Even that was a bit disappointing -- Christine Collins and Sarah Garner led for the first half of the race, then saw Romania and Germany zip by.
"We pushed out in front and just tried to hold on," said Collins, of Worcester, Mass., who has her first Olympic medal to go along with four world championships. "We just didn't have the same kick at the end as they did." The United States was the only country to qualify in all 14 events and nine of them made the finals. Only three won medals -- one silver, two bronze -- for the worst performance since 1972. So instead of leaving Sydney with the most medals since taking eight in Los Angeles, the United States will go to Athens looking for their first gold medals since the boycott-tainted 1984 games and their first against a full field since '64. That '64 crew won the men's eight. It was the 11th U.S. victory in 14 tries, including nine of 10. All the surviving members of that squad visited, called or wrote this year's team to help gear up for their moment of glory. But things were out of whack from their first race at the Sydney International Regatta Center. They were second in a first-round heat and barely won a second-chance race to qualify for the finals. Over the ensuing days, they moved from the athlete's Village to a hotel closer to the venue and tested out various seat changes. Jeff Klepacki ended up replacing Chris Ahrens as the stroke, but it didn't help. The Americans were last after 500 meters and only passed one boat the rest of the way. They finished as close to sixth as they did to fourth. "I thought what we needed was to step back, get our rhythm going again," coach Mike Teti said of the new lineup. "In the race, we got a little bit behind early, felt some pressure and started trying too hard -- probably way too hard." Teti made a much more drastic change in June when he moved Mike Wherley, one of the three-time world champs, to the fours boat so it could qualify for the Olympics. Wherley had to stay, and that crew finished fifth Saturday. Simon, whose injury opened the spot on the four, wound up taking Wherley's place on the eight. These races were his international debut. This is the third straight Olympics that the men's eight has come home empty-handed, and that's a first. Other U.S. also-rans Sunday included the men's lightweight coxless four (sixth, 8.41 seconds back) and the women's quadruple sculls (fifth, 10.68 seconds behind). The United States' futility looks even worse compared to one woman: Elisabeta Lipa of Romania, who extended her own record for women's rowing medals by being part of the gold-medal eight. It was Lipa's fourth gold since '84. She also has two silvers and a bronze. She was fifth in the double sculls Saturday. Romania won three golds over the two-day finals, the most of any country. All were in women's events. Also Sunday, a Latvian rower who finished ninth in the men's single sculls was expelled from the Olympics for testing positive for steroids. Andris Reinholds was the fifth athlete kicked out since the Sydney Games began.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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