It’s amazing to be one year out from the next Olympic games.  It feels to me, as Beijing was still just a couple of months ago, let alone Athens being almost 8 years ago.   The day-to-day training is so similar I tend to forget all the amazement, excitement, and enjoyment the Olympics offers.  When you are living and breathing the games side by side with a group of people who are doing the same, you become sheltered from build up the rest of the world is feeling.   Olympians and hopefuls live by a motto “It is not every 4 years it is every day” because we must.  You have to put in the years of training just to have a chance at representing the country and gain that moment of glory.  The hard work during the years between the games starts to see pay off as the 365 day countdown begins.  Slowly you start to realize that you and your teammates have fans.  As the year turns to months you start to discover that its not just your hometown and family but your state is watching you get ready.  As the naming date approaches newspapers are emailing and calling asking about YOU.  As those months become weeks you discover that the world is watching and waiting for this 4 year drought to end.  The worlds best athletes are about to compete and you have given yourself a chance to be part of it.  The most amazing part of the whole experience is when it come time for it to start…it all goes away.  It is still you and the team you have grown close to, the other men around you that you would do anything for, and it’s a 6-lane boat race that you want your bow ball to cross the line first.

Greetings and welcome to the official blog of the NRF. Both Dan Walsh and I (the current Shields Fellows) are trying to launch a social media campaign that will help connect the NRF and all of its many generous supporters to current USA athletes. Using Twitter, YouTube and this blog, we will try to update you as much as possible about all of our training and racing adventures. So, here it goes!

After lots of fun racing at the Henley Royal Regatta, both the men and women’s teams left for Switzerland early Monday morning. The trip from London to Zurich and then to Lucerne was fairly uneventful, which always seems to be a good sign when traveling. We are all staying at Hotel Continental-Park except for a small portion of the men’s team who are residing with host families. After squishing five to a house (and four to an attic where I was), this hotel and all its space is a welcome change from Henley. My roommate, Jamie Redman, and I even have an overhead shower head and mood lighting (blue and red lights along the walls). So, no complaints with the accommodations here.

As a newbie, or “noob” as many of my teammates like to call the young kids, I have never been to Lucerne let alone a World Cup regatta. Therefore, everything is quite new and exciting for me. Today the course was swarming with rowers from all over. The past two days have been fairly quiet, but seeing as racing begins tomorrow, the world is definitely here. I cannot get over how beautiful the course is, let alone the entire city of Lucerne. As a girl from Colorado, I am loving the mountains in the backdrop. The people here are extremely friendly, my teammate Caroline Lind and I met a group of young boys and girls on the bus who asked us all sorts of questions and even friended us on Facebook. They could speak German, French, Spanish and English fluently, all at a mere 8 years old. Makes me feel pretty lousy about my pathetic knowledge of Spanish, even after 7 years of studying the language. Anyways, life is good, the food is delicious, Marc Nowak is here (our amazing physical therapist), so we’re all feeling good and everyone seems to be on the same page (I walked into the middle of the men’s team meeting last night accidentally, so embarrassing).

A big thank you to the NRF, Team USA is fortunate to be here and we are ready to race!
Cheers,

Taylor Ritzel