CBC Beijing The Olympic Games 2008The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesCBC Beijing The Olympic Games 2008

Posted by Adam Kreek | Aug 28, 08 09:17 PM

Our eight won and the accomplishment feels absolutely incredible!! I am so excited; I can hardly control myself.

I thought I would post my pre-race notes. This is what I wrote down prior to the race to ‘study.’ The writing below will probably be more interesting to rowers. I am posting this, because when I was a junior I wished I had access to a National Team race plan!

I know some people out there are eager to contact me directly. If so, you can send an email to rowkreek@gmail.com.

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Aug 16, 08 12:53 PM

Can you imagine a childhood without play? I can’t. For the past year I have been making a living by splashing around in the water with my friends – a scarce living by western standards, but exorbitant when compared to more than 90 per cent of the world population.

When I was a child, sport taught me how to co-operate with others, follow rules, channel excitement, set and achieve goals. As a teenager and young man, sport provided a perfect outlet to channel my energy, competitive drive and aggressive tendencies.

I want to take a page to promote Right to Play, an athlete-driven non-governmental organization that is doing its small part to make our world a better place.

Right to Play is a humanitarian organization that uses sport to teach children about teamwork, fair play, conflict resolution, self-esteem, communication, commitment, respect and integrity. I firmly believe that this organization improves the lives of children by strengthening their communities with the best practices of sport and play. Right to Play creates opportunities to promote development, health and peace.

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Aug 11, 08 04:03 PM

Today is a very special day. It is race day. Shortly after waking up this morning, I could feel the mini-nuclear reactor in my stomach starting to fire up, getting ready to turn the turbines. I run into my teammates in the hotel room hallway and I can sense that they are feeling the same thing. Again.

Yesterday, when we were halfway through our warmup, an official drove up to us in his wakeless umpire launch.“Eights go dock,” he shouted in a broken, eastern-European accent over his megaphone. The command was very confusing at first, because our minds were set firmly in the paradigm of race preparation. It took about a minute, but we realized that a lightning storm was causing the regatta delay.

One of the strengths of my crew is our commitment to race-day rehearsal. We talk endlessly about our race and race calls, and have visualization sessions on and off the water, on top of the obvious real-time training pieces. Our warmup is another component of race preparation that has been practised and talked over countless times.

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Aug 7, 08 02:26 PM

The opening ceremony is a quintessential part of the Olympic Games. Performances are incredibly artistic and entertaining, and the different countries’ outfits are fun to comment on. I am sure the energy of the crowd in the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing will be larger than the explosive fireworks in the sky – especially when the Chinese walk into the arena.

What is it like to be part of this grand show? How does it feel to be the subject of the crowd’s cheers? Unfortunately, I will never know, because my first race is on Aug. 10.

There are some 10,500 athletes competing at these Games and it takes an incredible amount of herding and organizing to make sure everyone walks in at their allotted time.

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Jul 31, 08 04:32 PM

Mike Spracklen creates the most demanding training regime in the world. He doesn’t just pressure his athletes with volume and intensity of work. He constantly presents opponents to compete against. Mother Nature is on the list, embodied in a saying of Mike’s: “The only two things that stop us are fog and ice.” Which means with fog you can’t see, and with ice you can’t row.

We train every day in sun, rain, snow, hail, strong wind and high waves. I have crystal memories of pea-sized hail flicking my ears, rowing shells sinking because of high wind and waves, my sliding seat freezing and not moving, my body freezing and barely moving.

I remember watching a couple of athletes put their boat away after observing the foul weather that morning. Mike walked up to them and with his calm, soft British accent asked what they were doing. “We’re putting our boat away. Its far too windy to row.” “That’s OK,” he replied in a conciliatory tone, “Not everyone can be a world champion.”

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Jul 21, 08 02:53 PM

I am beginning to feel like I can function again. Sleep no longer sings her Siren song every waking hour that I do not row. Every so often she finds a way to call me on the water, but I resist.

I have been sleeping about 12-14 hours a day, napping hard in between my three scheduled workouts as well as getting a full night’s sleep. I find sleep essential to ease the chronic aches and fatigue that come with extreme training.

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Jul 4, 08 06:42 PM

Reigning world champions, number one in the world and undefeated in 2008. Meet the men who make up Canada's Eight for the Beijing Games.

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Jun 23, 08 09:14 AM

Alarm goes off. It is 6 a. m.

First breakfast: Pint of Smoothie (blueberries, pear, banana, pineapple, yoghurt, flax seed oil, carrot juice, rice milk, powdered greens, whey protein, creatine, glutamine, Green/yerba mate tea

1st row: 2 energy gels and 2 litres of E-Load electrolyte drink

Second breakfast: 3 eggs with cheese and veggies (onions, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, snow peas), 3 pieces of 12-grain bread, 2 pints of orange juice

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Jun 18, 08 09:40 AM

Protesters inside and outside of Tibet have brought a general questioning of China's attitude towards human rights back to the main stage. In fact, China will not allow any tourist visas to the region until after the Games.

It is not my desire, nor my place as an athlete, to address the correctness of the Chinese Government’s actions towards its minorities -- of which I do have opinions. However, I will address the issue of using amateur athletes as pawns in an Olympic boycott pressuring China into embracing different values.

Olympic competition is inherently excellent because the sporting venue is innately apolitical. Regardless of race, creed, religion, colour or political orientation, anyone who follows the simple rules of competition is free to test their mettle against the best athletes of the world. A boycott would be an overtly political move in a field that tries its hardest not to subscribe to outside biases.

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Posted by Adam Kreek | Jun 9, 08 04:52 PM

I’m back at our National Training Centre in Victoria after a solid race at the World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. A week has passed since our eight won gold. We are still training hard and slowly recovering from jet lag.

Changing time zones can be tiresome and disorientating; add to the mix our Olympic training regime and the task of functioning - on and off the water - becomes a huge challenge.

Our eight had an encouraging weekend at the Lucerne World Cup. The goal of the regatta was to poke the embers of the international racing community and see if countries did their homework last winter. The race fell in an awkward part of our training cycle leading up to Beijing, leaving us little time to taper, but I am sure other countries faced similar challenges. We were pleased with the result but have more work to do in preparation for Beijing.

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Posted by Adam Kreek | May 20, 08 11:04 PM

Why I race…

I love going into schools and giving talks. I focus on my passion for sport, my respect for our fragile global environment, lessons I have learned, setting goals and the importance of proper nutrition.

I remember one time I was in front of a group of kids describing a race:

“The pain experienced while rowing is similar to middle distance running, biking really hard or speed skating. Your legs burn and scream for oxygen, while your lungs wheeze with your heart struggling to transport renewed blood to the complaining body parts. Suffering is the best word to describe how I feel in a race. The after-effects of competition are exhausting. My body aches and I have depressed energy and drive for weeks after the event.”

The innocent, truthful voice of a grade four pupil challenged me: “Then why do you do it?”

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