The Olympic and Paralympic Games leading up to the 2024 Paris Games began Thursday morning in Sarasota. Athletes are racing in eight Olympic rowing classes and two Paralympic rowing classes for the chance to be selected to the U.S. team and compete in France this summer.
After Thursday morning's time trial, the race continues with the semifinals on Saturday and the finals on Sunday, both of which will be streamed live on Peacock as part of NBC's Olympic coverage.
The winners of the three events that the U.S. team qualified for at last year's world championships in Belgrade, women's singles and men's and women's pairs, will be selected directly to the Olympic team on Sunday, joining the 21 campers named last week.
In the other events listed below, the winners of the trials will now have to head to the Final Olympic/Paralympic Qualification (FOPQR) in Lucerne next month to earn an actual spot on the Paris squad . In most events, crews need to finish in the top two to qualify for Paris, with the one exception being the PR1 men's singles. In this case, only the winner will earn the right to participate in the Paralympic Games.
FOPQR eligible events at the Trials are Men's Singles, Doubles, Quads, Light Doubles, Women's Quads, PR1 Men's Singles, and PR2 Mixed Doubles. Men's Eight, the camp selection boat announced last week, will also compete at FOQPR after failing to qualify in Belgrade last year.
Both scullers on last year's world championship team hope to regain their spots for the Olympic year. Kara Kohler, who placed fourth in Belgrade, had the fastest W1x time on Thursday morning, while Finn Putnam, who placed 19th in Belgrade, was second behind Jake Prihor in the 2023 event. Pan Am silver medalist in the M1x time trial.
jake prehall
Three teams from the 2023 team, men's doubles, lightweight men's doubles and men's quads, will also race here intact. In the M2x, Ben Davison and Sorin Kozik won the time trial, while the 2023 LM2x of Zach Heath and Jimmy McCullough finished second behind last year's LM1x and its partner Sam Melvin in Cooper Tuckerman. It became. The 2023 M4x, which was reselected during the Olympic selection camp, narrowly defeated the second-place U.S. Training Center Sarasota crew in the single file time trial. The returning quartet of Dominic Williams, William Regenzowski, Liam Galloway and Kevin Cardno finished just 0.11 seconds ahead of the quartet of Andrew Leroux, Michael Knippen, Michael Crafer and Andrew Guard. did.
All three of these events require a successful trip to Lucerne to book a venue in Paris. In Belgrade, the M2x and M4x each finished two places clear of him until qualifying directly, while the LM2x had him 12 places clear.
Ben Davison and Sorin Kosic
There are plenty of new combinations in the pairs race to qualify here, while the women's quad event features boats that have not yet qualified. Early indicators for the time trial include the men's pair of Oliver Babb and Billy Bender, the women's pair of Jessica Tennes and Aja Czakowski, and the camp's chosen women's quad of Lauren O'Connor, Teal Cohen and Emily Delman. determined by. And Grace Joyce.
The two para-events of these trials went directly to finals on Sunday, with no racing taking place on Thursday.
Complete time trial results and Saturday's semi-final brackets can be found here.
