From The Editor: An Autumn of Rebirth

Spring is the season of rebirth and renewal (and in rowing the one that really counts), but this autumn has some resurrection vibes, especially with the U.S. National Team—now the Gemini.com National Team, thanks to a $6.5-million dollar gift from U.S. Olympians Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (story).

For the first time since 2019, right before the current leadership of USRowing began work, a U.S. crew in late September crossed the line first at a senior World Rowing Championship. The U.S. women’s four broke the 0-for-78 worlds-events losing streak with a powerful gold-medal performance in Shanghai, followed the next day by Michelle Sechser’s win in the lightweight single.

Even at 38 years of age, Sechser shows no signs of being in the autumn of her international competitive career. And despite falling short of two of her biggest goals—to win an Olympic medal, at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and in Paris last summer (Rowing News interview)—Sechser speaks about rowing with a joy that’s infectious.

In the first year of the quadrennial leading up to the LA 2028 Games (which won’t include lightweight events for the first time since 1992), Sechser gave openweight flat-water sculling a try and says she’ll give Beach Sprints—the contrived Olympic replacement for lightweight events—a try in the years to come.

It’s a new, albeit autumnal, beginning.

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