Summer Olympics 2000 Slow comeback now at top speed

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Friday, September 22
Slow comeback now at top speed
Associated Press

PENRITH, Australia -- Missy Ryan and Britain's Steven Redgrave have two things in common: Both said they were giving up rowing after winning medals at the Atlanta Olympics, then faced medical obstacles that seemed sure to keep them retired.

Oops, almost forgot. There's one more similarity: Both will be going for gold again Saturday (Friday, U.S. time), when seven of the 14 rowing events will be decided.

The United States will be in four of the finals -- the women's pairs, Ryan's event; the men's four, against Redgrave; the men's pair and the women's double sculls.

Ryan has reunited with Karen Kraft in pursuit of the prize they missed by three-tenths of a second four years ago. Her return is extraordinary because a few weeks after Atlanta she donated a kidney to her brother, Mike Schwen.

"Mike requested that we have a meeting with the surgeons to discuss what they thought a comeback would be like, if it would be possible," Ryan said.

"They said the big thing would be to take it slowly. They kept repeating, you REALLY have to take it slowly or else you could have problems. At that point, it didn't really matter to me. I said, 'If I can't come back, I've had a great run."'

Schwen has recovered nicely and is in graduate school in Indiana. Ryan is fine, too, except for being bitten badly by the rowing bug.

About a year and a half after the operation, she called Kraft. The two lived minutes apart in San Francisco, yet had rarely spoken. Nonetheless, they were still on the same wavelength.

"All she said was, 'What do you think?"' Kraft said. "I knew exactly what she was talking about. The thought had been in my mind as well and I was wondering how to pose the same question to her."

Ryan decided to go for it after asking herself one key question: If I don't try to make a comeback, will I regret it?

"Immediately, I said yes," she said.

In their only international competition before the Olympics, Ryan and Kraft were fifth in a World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland. That was only two months ago.

This week, they were second to Romania, the gold favorite, in a first-round heat, then got into the finals by winning a consolation round.

"I think we will surprise people," Ryan said. "We've gained quite a bit of speed. We're really on a roll."

Redgrave became rowing's greatest Olympic champion in '96, winning his fourth consecutive gold medal. He then declared: "Anyone who sees me go anywhere near a boat again, ever, you've got my permission to shoot me."

Three months later, he retracted his statement and announced he was switching from the pairs to the four. Over the next two years, he rocked his new boat by suffering an appendectomy, injuring his arm and being diagnosed with diabetes.

It's a good thing his wife is the team doctor.

The 38-year-old Redgrave is trying to become only the third person from any sport to win gold at five consecutive Olympics. Hungarian fencer Aladar Gerevich won golds at the six games from 1932-60 and his teammate Pal Kovacs won five from '36-60; there were no games in '40 and '44 because of World War II.

"I've been relaxed so far," Redgrave said Thursday after winning a semifinal heat. "There's a likelihood this could be my last Olympics, so I really want to enjoy it."

Among Redgrave's rivals is the Australian heir to the "Oarsome Foursome" crew that won the last two Olympic titles and an Italian boat that two months ago won a World Cup race in which the Brits finishing a stunning fourth.

A dark horse in the event is the U.S. entry, which was thrown together in June and won the Olympic qualifier two weeks later. The leader is Mike Wherley, who sacrificed his chances of winning gold on the three-time world champion U.S. eight squad when an injury jeopardizing the four's chances of making the Olympics.

"I think it's going to be really tight," Wherley said. "The battle for first could be between a couple boats, then I think that battle for second and third will be between everybody else."

Sebastian Bea and Ted Murphy will represent the United States in the pair, while the women's double scull will be pulled by '96 Olympic single-sculler Ruth Davidon and Carol Skorcki, who started rowing eight years ago at age 30.

The other finals Saturday are the men's and women's single sculls and the men's double sculls.

The U.S. will have five finalists Sunday.

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