Day before racing

New layout, some new pictures at the bottom. Gotta bring the A game for the Olympics.

I'm in the hotel getting rested up for my heat tomorrow. Hard to believe the Olympics are actually starting - the rowing has kicked in already with several of my teammates racing today. You can track racing at the following rowing-heavy websites -

www.row2k.com
www.fisa.org

All events are streamed live at nbcolympics.com, I believe.

As for my event, there are 13 crews in the lightweight men's four. We race in the heat tomorrow against three other crews. Three of the crews will advance directly to the semifinals on Thursday, the 14th. The fourth place crew goes on to the repechage (second heat) on Tuesday, which eliminates one crew. The semifinals on Thursday are our big race, if we advance to the medal final it will be a hugely successful regatta for us and anything can happen because the crews are so tightly packed together in our event.

My heat is tomorrow at 4:10 PM in China, and by finishing top 3 we will move on directly to the semifinal on Thursday, which will be about the same time of day.