The United States was the only adaptive team to qualify boats in all four Paralympic events at the 2007 FISA World Championships in Munich, Germany. Laura Schwanger led the group by advancing to the A final in the women's single, edging out Canada by 0.7 seconds. Ron Harvey cruised to a second-place finish in his semifinal, just one second behind last year’s world champion to secure his place. The TA double of Scott Brown and Angela Madsen had much more competition this year and came in third in its semifinal to earn a place in Beijing. The LTA 4+ coxed by Ryan Pawling with Jesse Karmazin, Jamie Dean, newcomer Tracy Lee Tackett and Aerial Gilbert had a terrific showing in the semifinal, coming in second to eventual champion Germany.

After making the finals in all of the adaptive events, some of the pressure was removed for our athletes. Everyone raced well in the finals with outstanding effort, but the competition was much greater then in past years. Even though every boat showed much improvement from last year, results this year were three fifth places and one sixth in the finals. There is much work to do for these athletes. Even though they qualified the boats for the United States, their seats are not guaranteed. The singles and doubles must win the Elite Nationals in June 2008, and the athletes in the 4+ will compete at a selection camp. If you think you might be able to challenge for a seat to go to Beijing, please contact Karen Lewis at klewisbiller@aim.com, and she will tell you what needs to be done to earn a seat for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.