I just happened to look on the site the other day and realized that people are still viewing the blog. Because of that I feel compelled to give an update.
Training. That's about it.
There is a small race coming up on the 15th @ Charlotte with a cash purse so come one come all. After that most will migrate to Australia for the month of Jan and Feb, while a select few will stay and brave the cold.
Cheers.
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Congratulations to Ashley Nee, she along with Scott Parsons were the only Americans to qualify an Olympic spot. read more
Michal Martikan is the 2007 C1 World Champion. He was followed by Tony Estanguet, and Robin Bell.
For the Kayak, newcomer Sebastien Combot is the Champ followed by Fabian Doerfler, and Campbell Walsh. Scotty finishes 7th securing an Olympic spot for the USA.
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Even with a spin and everyone throwing down amazing runs, Scotty sneaks in sitting in 8th. read more
C1
Benn,Tad, and Jeff......4th!
Scotty,Brett, and Jim...not sure
Zuz,Ash, and Caroline...9th
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The always interesting team runs are underway along with all the drama of dealing with your teammates different warm up criteria. Hopefully the actual race will be just as exciting. We will definitely let you know. read more
Both C2's along with Ashley and Caroline move on to the next round finishing things up on Sunday. read more
Scotty wins. Both Scotty and Brett gave awesome performances to move on the the semi's, but not without first giving us all heart attacks. Brett, almost flipping toward the bottom, was surely was out, but keeping his cool he pulled off a remarkable save. Scotty, coming out of a hole just a little weird almost overshot a downstream, but just managed to get in securing the win. Congrats to Benn as well as he put forth a stellar performance landing him in fourth.
RESULTS
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We are in between runs and as of right now Benn sits in 3rd and Scotty in first. We'll let you know who makes it through at the completion of the k1's. read more
Zuzana, surely you know that this blog has young readers. Please keep the stories clean or I might have to come across the hall and have a chat.
Good luck to all the racers competing tomorrow
We will be back with the results.
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Today we will see the demonstrations, which will be the beginning of an interesting race format. C-1's and K-1's will race the qualifier on Thur. and finish with semi's and finals on Fri, all before the Women and C-2's get started. read more
What an amazing site. This course is one of the coolest, most exciting whitewater parks around. It is nonstop action from top to bottom.
On another note, the Chinese really know how to put on an event. Service with a smile, and five star accommodation. Ask Scotty and Benn about their pillow menus and what flavor became their favorite. Just be prepared state side as we might have been a little spoiled.
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The team leaves for China tomorrow entering a world of mystery. Hope everyone went to the grocery store and loaded up. The race starts on Thursday Aug. 16th. I think I found where results will be posted
(click here, canoe07.org.cn)
but will let you know for sure.
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In the past, the snittest of them all award has been given to the person with the most snits during the racing season. Sometimes one snit trumps all if, the snit is spectacular enough to spur conversations weeks or years later. Some accept this award graciously with a smile. Yet others politic last minute hoping voters will reconsider. No longer will we reminisce about past snits. I proudly introduce the "Snittest Poll." Please, if you witness a worthy candidate, show them respect by giving them your vote. read more
It almost seemed as if we would be shut out of the final. Anyone who has been to Augsburg knows that you have to stay on top of the judging there. When our C-2 came down they were not sure which gates they hit, they just assumed 3 were hit. That was resolved and so was Parsons bogus touch, launching him just inside the final. Maybe if the team bugs him enough he will actually give a first hand account on one of his races for the blog. In fact, why don't people click that little comment button and let Scotty know that you would love to here from him, or anyone else for that matter. read more
Sorry guys, it's been tough trying to find a connection. Not even sure if this will post. Hopefully we will find a way to keep everyone informed, so bear with us. Also trying to figure out the site to go to for live results. Will let you know soon. read more
Scott Parsons came from behind to win Silver at the 2nd World Cup in Tacen. This is the first medal the US has had in quite some time. So congratulations to Scott, it was exciting! Full results are here.
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Scott Parsons threw down claiming Slovenia his own, and he's got a cool flag. All other results are up on the official results site
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You may ask what athletes do all day. Well, we train hard and prepare our bodies and minds to perform at the highest level. But still, there is downtime. If a you are a regular to this blog you also know that(ie post from Zuz and Benn) we spend an insane amount of time traveling to and from the course, watching, waiting, and running to the car to get dressed and finally warm up. Yet still there is downtime. Some people read. Some eat. Some spend their time yelling at Benn to stop eating. Mostly people spend their time jockeying to get the best position under the wireless router. But lately there has been Volleyball! It has brought out eaters and hackers from their dark caves they call home, dug up painful memories of being picked last as a small child, and reinvented the term profanity. 
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Yes, the river has come up! I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
see more pictures
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Just when we thought we'd seen it all, this was our after dinner treat from the hotel window.
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Noticias brevementes
Tacen, Slovenia In a grandiose gesture of universal goodwill, one carload of US National Whitewater Slalom Team athletes chose to share the delicious apple pie baked for the Team by the proprietress of their hotel in Prague, Czech Republic, with all their teammates, refraining from eating the entire pie themselves and hushing up the existence of the pie, as may easily have happened in a group less amicable and big-hearted. “I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good pie!” said one passenger of this generous car, smiling from ear to ear, “And the best part is, there was plenty for everyone!”
The Team appears to be in high spirits, despite stress associated with the long drive to Tacen and the inclement weather they braved during their first training session at the new site. “What really makes this sport neat is that it’s something that we can do with our friends,” said one long-time member of the Team. Team members cited the time that they spend together abroad as a major component to their deep caring for one another, and their understanding of one another’s hopes, fears, and ambitions. “His ceaseless whining and the rancid smell of his socks does not in the slightest fill me with righteous anger and a hankering for physical retribution,” said another Team member of his roommate. “There is rain on my back,” he added, “and my heart is filled with joy.” Another athlete says that her affection for her team members is somehow embodied in a pleasant, warm sensation deep in her bosom, quite the opposite of a sharp stabbing pain at the temples. “All of their intelligent, insightful comments make me marvel at their insight and intelligence,” she said, “I have no desire to call them on their bullshit or to bludgeon them with whatever heavy, blunt object is close at hand.” Other Team members murmured assent, as is customary in this tight-knit circle of kindred spirits. Cries of “Hosanna!” and “Peace be with you!” are common at Team meetings, which, eagerly anticipated by one and all, are brief and informative, and which athletes do not prolong unnecessarily either by sitting in an unresponsive, sullen stupor or by asking passive-aggressive questions indicative either or staggering arrogance or glaring stupidity.
Zuzana Vanha, staff reporter.
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More rain! Gotta love Europe. Maybe this will bring the river up, as it is very very low. Aren't we supposed to be on the sunny side of the Alps?
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It was the first world cup for five of our team members: Tad, Ricky & Casey, Ashley and I. It was a really great experience and many good things learned. I placed 34th in qualification on Friday after having one not so good run and then a very solid . After the semi-final run on Saturday, I ended up finishing 29th out of a field of around 62. As we move forward to Tacen, I hope to improve further on my result. The courses set for the race were a little more technical than I am used to in the US, but I loved the new challenge. I was also very happy to see that I qualified for the World championships this early, so a lot of pressure is off the next few races!
I'll keep you posted on Tacen!
~Caroline
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Sorry for leaving people in the dark, but the minute the race was over we had Silvan kicking and screaming for us to get to Slovenia. I guess he had enough of Czech, or maybe the homeland was calling his name. Anyway, most of arrived at our new hotel around 11 or 12 at night promptly hitting the hay. As far as results, you can go and check them out in detail HERE on the troja site. I guess as a team we were frustrated that we failed to get into the finals. read more
Benn Fraker 15th
Caroline Queen 29th (also qualifying for worlds today!)
Ashley Nee 30th
Full Results
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Congratulations to all of those that made it to the next round. If your still looking for results, click on the links below.
Class heats results "PDF's"
Follow live results
Webcam
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This strange weather we've been having threw us another curve ball. Not only did a freak storm come rolling in, delaying demos for 30 min, but it also treated everyone coming out from dinner to one of the most amazing rainbows we'd ever witnessed. The shots I took were taken from the front steps of our hotel. (view "Rainbow") read more
Hello all,
Benn Fraker here with some real news for you. Not to speak less of all the other entries, but something truly noteworthy happened to a few of the team members yesterday.
It began for all those involved as a normal drive to the course. We were running a little late, and it looked as if we would only have four and a half hours to get ready for the workout. Obviously, with such an extremely minute window to prepare, we were all a little tense. We all put our trust in Angela, now known as Mario, to get us to the workout in time to adequately prime ourselves for the workout.
As we safely raced through the streets of Prague to get to the course things began to go awry. What started out as a slightly rushed yet safety conscious trip to the course turned into something none of us could of have ever randomly come up with in front of a computer screen with a cup of coffee.
As the blinker clicked off we merged into traffic on the highway. There was a heated debate in the backseat about the war in Iraq between team members Scott Parsons, Zuzana Vanha, and Scott McClesky. Zuzana’s position, reminiscent of a war-mongering extremist, maintained that the reason we were not yet successful in Iraq was that our troops were out of practice, their combat skills a little rusty. In an unnecessarily loud voice she screeched at Parsons, “You are such a commonplace fool. Why bring our troops home now? They are just getting back into the game. They need this practice! Would you bench Mike Vick right before he broke the all-time NFL rushing record just because he gets sacked 15 to 20 times a game? The two situations are not only analogous, but exactly the same!” Parson’s view, just as extreme, but on the other end of the political spectrum, was that the US should withdraw from Iraq and spend all the war money on food and shelter for the homeless. Between anger induced subconscious fist-shakes Scott managed to stammer out that he felt, “The only right thing to do is to bring home the troops and re-allocate the money we spend wrecking other people’s countries an--an--and destroying lives to create better well-fare and education systems. And while we are at it, socialize healthcare!” Yes, you read right, when Scott gets worked up he has a bit of a stutter, and by a bit I mean that it is so bad that it inspires genuine pity in all who hear it. Then McClesky chimed in, “If you’re not with us, then by God you’re against us! We need to cowboy up and finish what we started. If I ever had me a boy, how would I be able to look him in ‘is eye and ask ‘is respect if I was in favor of forfeiting a war to a bunch of cowards who won’t come out in the open and fight us like they got a pair!!” I will spare you the whole argument, as its participants were all extremist bigots. The argument raged on in this fashion in what seemed to be a merry-go-round of insults and re-iterations. No one said anything new, no one changed their minds, nothing happened, people just got madder, louder, and downright belligerent. Some of their anger may be excused though, because everyone was in the high-stress situation that comes with having less than five hours to prepare for a workout.
As we drew closer to the course, tensions relaxed a little. But not for long, for just as in a cliché story when the characters let their guard down and something pivotal happens, our team quieted and then was smacked in the face by the hand of a new conflict.
Emergency brake up, steering wheel tilted, tires squealing, sliding sideways up an entrance ramp. The car began to fill with smoke from the spinning tires. We had the windows down, because that is the only way o.g.’s know how the kick it. Weaving through traffic like Mike Vick through a Panther’s defense, we flew across the river on a four-lane bridge. Just as we reached the halfway point we saw something that made every jaw in the car simultaneously drop, well, except for mine, because I was eating a royal with cheese and that takes priority over horrific car accidents. I looked up from my European Quarter-Pounder to the most shocking thing I have every seen firsthand. A cross-continental tour bus full of geriatrics was crashing through the railing of the bridge and beginning its rapid, inexorable and terrifying decent into the Vltava River. The never slow to react members of Team USA quickly decided to sacrifice their warm-up time in order to provide a helping hand.
Thanks to the quick minds of Team USA and the fortuitously timed lifejacket delivery at the hotel that morning, we were able to dive from the bridge with 43 lifejackets. This a shockingly perfect number, because their were 41 seniors plus the driver makes 42 and then one left over for Austin who is notoriously weak swimmer. As we fearlessly leapt from the bridge life seemed to play in slow motion. There were cannonballs, graceful dives, front and back flips, jack-knifes, flying squirrels, fairy-twisters, nut-grabbers, lions, tiger, and bears, but all these were upstaged by the jump, or rather screw-up, of Tad. In all the excitement Tad ran from the car, smoked us to the scene, clumsily slipped, and dazzled us all with a belly flop from a height of roughly 31.345 meters. After a quick giggle, we jumped between the bus and mass of oldies; the conglomerate of our splashes kicked up a wave large enough to surf the mangled bus to shore. In one fell leap we cleared the scene of any wreckage to speak of. Next, in the purest form, reminiscent of Michael Phelps, Team USA swam the ancients to shore. Once everyone was on shore we preformed CPR in sync to NSYNC. Literally, we saved lives to NSYNC's "Bye, Bye, Bye." Our High Performance Director, Chris Hipgrave, had his phone along, and "Bye, Bye, Bye" is his ring-tone. During all the life saving someone called him. Obviously, he could not answer with someone's life on the line. Ergo we saved lives one of our time's greatest pop songs. Needless to say we didn't let anyone "Dye, Dye, Dye."
The day was saved, more importantly so were the lives of a herd of tourists. To make a long story short, we will all be awarded The Sergio Vieira de Mello Citizen of the World Award from the UN, and The Nobel Peace Prize in addition to a long list of awards from local and international organizations.
After all the hullabaloo had subsided Team USA piled back into their black Opel Vectra and made their way to the course for a work out. We arrived about 40 minutes before our session was scheduled to start. Everyone promptly got dressed, warmed up, and made it to the top of the racecourse with 20 minutes to spare. Everyone sat around absolutely bored to tears for 20 minutes, like seriously, Jeff, Brett, and Jim started crying. After tears were shed and what seemed like years passed we were finally aloud on the course. Everyone had a positively glorious session on the whitewater. As we piled into the car to go back to the hotel we experienced the days final phenomenon, the largest simultaneous verbalization the modern world has ever seen. Everyone from, the now heroic and life-saving, Team USA looked at one another and in monotonous unison uttered the words, “So, if we arrived to the session 40 minutes early today, got dressed, warmed up, and ready to rock in 20 minutes, and were then painfully bored for the next 20 minutes. Why the hell do we always get here five hours before our workouts? From now on I think we should behave like rational individuals and arrive 30 minutes before every session.”
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Today was pretty chilly, but a few of us decided to go into downtown Prague. We first went to Bohemian Bagel and had great food and more importantly FREE refills. After that we saw a cool Salvador Dali exhibit in an art gallery. We also saw some really cool glass work. Brett and Scotty then took Ashley and I to the Charles Bridge where we saw some really old statues of Saints. Overall we had a great time! There are also some pictures we will post soon!(pictures, see "Group Trip")
-Caroline
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After submitting our skin to the sunburn gods it seems that old man winter decided to drop by for a three day visit. Not sure if it's actually cold or not, it's so windy it could be 80˚, but the wind chill feels a mere 50. (see pictures "windy weather") read more
Everyone has finally arrived and our hotel has wireless! Needless to say everyone has jumped on their computers. See what they're up to, and click here. read more
I have been in Europe for about a month. Thanks to the awesome course in Merano (this statement made dripping with sarcasm) I am a little bored. Augsburg is good, but I want to go race.
Austin arrived today, devoid of a partner. Cluck decided to take a short vacation in Philadelphia on his way to Munich. Hopefully he at least gets here before the coaches.
Until just now I was a virgin to blogging. I hope the expansive audience I am sure you belong to enjoyed my first time.
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