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