For Wyatt Allen, 2007 was a transition year. After spending the past two years sculling, the six-time national team member and 2004 Olympic gold medalist in the eight made the switch back to sweep rowing.
Allen completed the transition without a hitch, earning a spot in the men’s eight and helping the crew to a fourth-place finish at the 2007 FISA World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany. In addition, the 2001 graduate of the University of Virginia finished second in the men’s pair at the third 2007 USRowing National Selection Regatta and won gold in the eight and silver in the four at the 2007 USRowing National Championships. In recognition of his accomplishments, Allen’s teammates voted him USRowing’s 2007 Male Athlete of the Year.
“It’s a really great honor, especially since it comes from your peers,” Allen said. “It’s strange to be singled out when the sport is so team oriented. So many people deserve recognition … As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized the importance of being a good teammate. It’s nice to see that maybe I am – to know that you’re contributing to the group in a positive way.”
A native of Portland, Maine, Allen played soccer and lacrosse in high school and chose the Virginia for its strong academic reputation. With the Cavaliers having top NCAA Division I programs in both of his high school sports, Allen figured his competitive athletic career was over. But like many tall, athletic college freshman, Allen was recruited by members of the club rowing team the first week he was on campus.
“The draw was that I would be competing at the highest level,” Allen said. “Even though it was a club program, I was going to be able to race programs like Harvard, Yale and Washington, although not all that closely I found out.”
Allen said he enjoyed the sport right away, and by the end of his sophomore year, he was beginning to pull ergometer scores that were getting close to national team-caliber. Following his junior year, Allen made the 2000 Nation’s Cup (the precursor to the Under 23 World Championships) squad in the pair. He finished fifth in the event in Copenhagen, Denmark, and came back the following year to make the Nation’s Cup eight. The crew, which included two of Allen’s future Olympic gold medal-winning boatmates from the eight, ended up winning the silver medal.
Following the summer of 2001, Allen moved to Princeton full-time and began sculling in a single. He progressed quickly and made his first senior national team in the quadruple sculls in 2002. After a 10th-place finish in the quad in Seville, Allen once again raced the quad at the 2003 World Championships, this time finishing 14th.
After the championships, Allen decided that his best opportunity to win a medal at the Olympics was to switch back to sweep rowing, and with the coaches’ encouragement, he began sweeping again in the fall of 2003.
“It was my decision, but at the same time, it was an opportunity provided by the coaches,” Allen said. “It was laid out to me as a possibility. At that point, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
The opportunity couldn’t have turned out any better. Allen went on to make the 2004 Olympic Team in the eight, setting a world’s best time in the heat and winning a gold medal in the final.
“Of course you hope, but you never know if you’ll experience that again,” Allen said. “We had a group of guys that got along better than any group of guys jammed into a boat could expect, and maybe because of that, it just took off. In some respects, that spoils you. You expect that to happen again, and it’s really a special event.”
Following the Olympics, Allen switched back to sculling to give the single a try. Allen had shown initial success in the event at the national selection regattas in 2002 and 2003 but had never had a chance to test himself in the boat on the international level. In 2005, Allen recorded a ninth-place finish at the world cup race in Munich and finished 14th at the world championships in Japan.
The next year, Allen was back in the quad, this time finishing eighth at the world championships. Once again, he made the decision to move back to sweep rowing. Having not swept for two years, Allen said the transition back to using one oar took a little time, but he worked his way into final selection for the four and eight, finally settling into three-seat of the eight.
In Munich, the crew finished third in its heat before coming back to win both its repechage and semifinal. In the final, Allen said the goal was to win, and the crew wanted to stay with the favorites from Canada and Germany off the start. Unfortunately, Great Britain had more in the tank in the final 1,000 meters, and the U.S. finished fourth behind the Canadians, Germans and Brits.
“Going into (the championships), we knew we had a young boat,” Allen said. “We knew we had decent speed, but we didn’t have times that indicated we were going to run away with the race. Our heat was a bit disappointing. We made some mistakes that ended up pushing us into the repechages. But, I think that was a good thing for the boat because of our youth and because we hadn’t been together in that combination for very long. We had a good rep and a good semi, getting better each piece. In the final, we let it all hang out.”
While not winning a medal was a bit disappointing, Allen said the fact that the men’s sweep team qualified all of its boats for next year’s Olympics in Beijing was of greater importance.
“More than anything, the team as a whole qualified all our sweep boats,” Allen said. “It’s easy to overlook that, but there were a lot of countries that didn’t do that. There were a lot of good rowers that went home having not qualified for the Olympics, rowers with a lot bigger resumes than ours. To have all of those qualify is the first step. Now, we have a year to amp it up and make a run at something.”