Double the Experience

August 26, 2011

When Kristin Hedstrom was just graduating from high school and heading off to row at the University of Wisconsin, Julie Nichols was in her second year on the U.S. National Team, getting ready to row in the lightweight quadruple sculls at the world championships.

And when Hedstrom was rowing the lightweight double at the 2007 under 23 world championships on her first national team, Nichols was in her fifth year, rowing to silver in the quad at the 2007 Pan American Games.

With so many years between them, it would seem unlikely that 25-year-old Hedstrom and 33-year-old Nichols would now be representing the United States together in the lightweight double sculls event at the 2011 Rowing World Championships in Bled, Slovenia, and thinking about the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England.

But they are.

After teaming up in the lightweight double and winning the second national selection regatta, the two qualified for, and accepted, nominations to the national team upon taking a bronze medal at the first world rowing cup stop in Munich, Germany on May 29.

“This last month has been a big whirlwind,” said Hedstrom, just after Munich. “It’s only been six weeks, but so much has happened since we decided to start rowing together. We trained, then we won the (national selection regatta) and then we decided we wanted to come to Europe.

“It was like everything was happening so quickly, that when we got to the end of the first world cup and qualified there, we kind of sat back down afterward and said, ‘What just happened?’”

What happened was, the two fastest women in the lightweight single sculls this year decided they wanted to row together and attempt to qualify the lightweight double for the Olympics at this year’s world championships and then train to win the right to row the event in London.

Since Munich, Nichols and Hedstrom won gold at the second world cup stop in Hamburg and then bronze again at the final stop in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The three medals were enough for Nichols and Hedstrom to become the first U.S. crew to win a points trophy – an honor awarded to the crew in each event that accumulates the most points racing in the World Cup series. The U.S. crew tallied 18 total points.

The journey for the pair began at the first USRowing national selection regatta when they both raced the lightweight single. Nichols won the event and Hedstrom finished second. The next day they talked about teaming up and then did.

“We hadn’t planned on rowing the double,” Nichols said. “But it seemed to be a good fit and we seemed to be on the same page on a lot of things, so coming in one-two just made it an easy decision.”

What also made the decision easy was the desire by both women to race in the Olympics.

Nichols, of Livermore, Calif., has years of experience on the national team. This will be her ninth team. She won a silver medal in the lightweight double at the 2005 World Rowing Championships and was an alternate at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Last year, Nichols finished sixth in the lightweight single at world championships, but felt that she was not in the best competitive shape. She had just completed her master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of California and was working on her PhD and taking exams right up until June.

“For me last year, being in school, it was a lot harder to coordinate with someone else, so the single kind of made sense. I was pretty preoccupied with school,” she said.

When she returned home from New Zealand, she began training for a return to the lightweight single. Hedstrom even joined her for three weeks during the winter, but they were not talking about the double then.

“We weren’t making firm plans at that point,” Nichols said. “We were just trying to make sure that, individually, we were up to speed and putting in all the work.”
 
Being an Olympic alternate in 2008 left Nichols with the feeling of having unfinished business.

“I do feel that, a little bit,” she said. “But mostly, I try to take this as a new adventure in my rowing. Not dwell on the past, but just learn from it and try to build on it. You can’t carry baggage around too much. I just try to be really constructive. But it’s something I haven’t done yet. I haven’t raced in the Olympics.”

Neither has Hedstrom.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, the Concord, Mass., native rowed on two senior national teams. Last year, she won a silver medal in the quadruple sculls. Like Nichols, being an Olympian has been a goal since she started rowing.
 
“It’s very exciting, for sure, to go for it,” she said. “This has kind of been what I’ve been going for. I feel like it’s exciting to ramp up and for this. To be the qualifying year and for us to represent the U.S. in the double is very exciting. It’s awesome.”

Now they’ve arrived at Lake Bled and the 2011 World Rowing Championships.
 
And despite the difference in age and experience, it all makes perfect sense to Nichols and Hedstrom. For Hedstrom, rowing with Nichols presents an opportunity to learn from a seasoned veteran.

“Julie is awesome,” Hedstrom said. “And I feel like we work well together. We’re a good mix.  Julie is very experienced and knows how everything works and I feel like it definitely works to my advantage to work with someone that has that behind her.

“But at the same time, it feels like she has a little bit of unfinished business having almost made it in ‘08, so I feel like it’s very exciting to be rowing together and be part of this journey for Julie as well.”

Nichols said she gets “teased about being the old lady a lot,” but knows that Hedstrom is bringing her share to the partnership.

“We’re both bringing things to this double,” Nichols said. “We’re both big contributors. So it’s a really good partnership.

“It really needs to be a two-person boat and both people are important in it. I think that gets lost sometimes, but it’s really constructive and it feels like we’re just both working toward the same goal and purpose every day.”

Ed Moran

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