December Letters to the Editor
These letters were submitted to the editor of Rowing News and were published in the December issue of the print magazine.
Anatomy of Failure
My name is Jess Thoennes, I am a 2021 Olympian, a current team member, and athlete training at The Princeton Training Center.
I wanted to write in order to thank you for your article “Anatomy of Failure.” It’s an incredibly odd feeling when somebody yanks you out of the tumultuous, excrement-filled rapids you’ve been battling for the past several years and says, “I see it, too; it’s not all your fault. Maybe the river just has shit in it.”
Your comprehensive analysis and subsequent story allowed me a brief moment of respite from the thoughts that have plagued me for some time. Given, I will still probably ask myself, “Where was I short? Where did I fail? Why am I constantly not enough?”
But it was a relief to have somebody on the outside point out that a $12 million budget has a tough time keeping up with a $50 million one—no matter how many meters you row. Perhaps those who say they’re “doing everything they can” may not be and don’t care about the high performance teams, dreams, or medals but memberships and PR.
Needless to say, I have to re-enter the river, despite knowing what is in the water, because somewhere on it are my elusive dreams. I just wanted to say thank you for this piece and congratulate you on a truly wonderfully written article.
Jess Thoennes
Princeton, N.J
I read Chip’s article twice to make sure that I was understanding how badly USRowing botched an opportunity to land Sir Steven Redgrave and his wife last October to bolster our National Team’s medal hopes with desperately-needed funding and new sponsorships. The mind races thinking about what kind of impact Redgrave would have had on USRowing, if only we were ready for it.
Instead, we have USRowing’s board and CEO missing the easiest layup in U.S. rowing history. It’s distressing to see that Amanda Kraus “would never ‘second guess’ the decision to pass on the Redgrave opportunity.”
If Kraus simply acknowledged that she made a mistake passing on Redgrave, I’d see her as someone who’s perhaps learning from her mistake. It might even signal that she’s now open to embracing the High Performance Council’s recommendations and working more closely with the NRF. She might see that ceding a bit of control in exchange for far more financial support for our athletes makes sense.
But her failure to admit or learn from her mistake speaks to a level of dysfunction and incompetence that we’ve sadly come to expect from USRowing and its leadership.
Frank Rowe
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
National Team member, 1989, 1991
I just read your article “Anatomy of Failure.”
It was well done and well written and laid out the story pretty clearly. You even somewhat carefully pulled a few of your punches. But the overall message was loud and clear.
Thank you for writing it.
Nick Copley
West Newton, Mass.
I always look forward to getting Rowing News. It only gets better and better! Great article on “Anatomy of Failure,” but how depressing!
Plus ca change, plus…
I did not know about the Redgrave possibility; it is astonishing that “they” said no.
Money, of course, has always been an issue. I remember fighting to try to mend the relationship with the NRF and to stave off the idea of USRowing having its own foundation. That idea really made Hart Perry mad—and he never got mad!
But rebuffing the opportunity with Redgrave because it would give up “total control of the National Team” is ridiculous. The board was never supposed to be in charge of the National Team. It was the responsibility of the coaches and then the director of rowing (or high performance director).
It is just really sad.
Monk Terry
Miami, Fla.
1972 Olympic eight; past president, USRowing
Congrats, congrats, finally someone had the guts to write about it. The best report I ever read. Great job.
Kris Korzienowski
Princeton, N.J.
The post December Letters to the Editor appeared first on Rowing News.