•	Features
•	Hotline
•	Paddle Tales
•	First Descents

< November/December 2004
	Hotline
Greece Lightning Olympic Roundup

Giddens Shining Star in Slalom

Whoever says a slalom race can have only one winner didn’t see American kayaker Rebecca Giddens beaming from the second step of the Olympic podium Aug. 18. The 2002 world champion proved herself on a powerful whitewater course that derailed the dreams of veterans like Czech two-time Olympic gold medallist Stepanka Hilgertova. Giddens’ silver medal in women’s kayak headlined a solid showing from the U.S. slalom squad, and marked the first American paddling medal in any discipline since Dana Chladek won silver in the same event in 1996.

In her semifinal run, Giddens, 27, lost precious seconds crossing a hole near the bottom of the course. The mistake left her in fourth place after the semi, 3.81 seconds behind leader Elena Kaliska of Slovakia. “We worked that move a zillion times in practice. It’s just a very hard move to make when you’re tired,” says U.S. slalom team leader Bill Endicott.

Giddens had no margin for error in the final. “That’s what the Olympics are about,” Endicott says. “It’s not just the skills that you practice, it’s being able to perform them under severe emotional pressure.” Giddens put the gaff out of her mind and attacked the final run with abandon, arriving at the crucial hole-crossing with no gate penalties and the best time of the day. She negotiated the tricky upstream gate 17 with one smooth draw, then blasted cleanly across the hole. Moments later her name flashed at the top of the leader board. She had claimed temporary custody of the gold medal position, but three paddlers still waited, each with a faster first run than Giddens, and each intent on claiming the gold for herself.

Still dripping salt water from the Athens course, Giddens stood at the finish line as Germany’s Jennifer Bongardt charged down the pushy Class III-IV artificial rapids. When the German crossed the line in seventh place, Giddens smiled at her husband and coach, 1996 Olympian Eric Giddens. At that moment she had become an Olympic medalist; only the color remained to be decided. Even after Kaliska blitzed the course to claim gold by a 4.59-second margin, Giddens could hardly contain her joy. “I feel like I should break it up into a ton of pieces and give it to everyone who has helped me get here,” she said of the heavy silver disk draped around her neck.

Stealing the show, of course, was the Olympic whitewater course. Engineers wrapped 300 yards of pushy whitewater into a natural amphitheater and gave it a 111-foot-per-mile drop on par with natural classics like Maryland’s Upper Yough. Six massive electric pumps pushed 620 cfs through a 30-foot-wide channel, while the distinctive aquamarine color and salty aftertaste came courtesy of the nearby Mediterranean Sea, which brought this man-made river to life.

Thousands filled the bleachers and a grassy hillside each morning to watch the racing and enjoy the banter of former U.S. slalom racers Lamar Sims and Kent Ford, who held court from the audio booth. Each morning Ford wired his boat for sound and ran the course, offering breathless commentary at every gate. Whitewater quickly became a choice venue for athletes who had finished competing and media hacks with a few hours to kill before deadline. Only the beach volleyball venue, with its statuesque athletes and bikini-clad dancing girls, could compete.

The saltwater was an adjustment for all the athletes—American C-2 paddler Joe Jacobi likened the soft feel to skiing on powder—but the high flow and steep gradient played into the hands of Americans who grew up paddling natural courses. American kayaker Scott Parsons laid down two penalty-free runs, but couldn’t produce the speed needed to finish in the medals. Ninth after the semifinal, he improved to sixth with a solid final run. Parsons, 25, heads up a talented trio of young American kayakers, together with 23-year-old Brett Heyl, who finished fifth in the qualifying runs, but faltered in the semifinal to finish 15th overall; and Scott Mann, 21, who narrowly missed the two-man Olympic roster. With all three aiming for Beijing, American kayakers should be a powerful force in the next quadrennial.

But that’s the future. In Athens the gold medal went to Frenchman Benoit Peschier. Campbell Walsh of Great Britain claimed silver and Fabien Lefevre, the flamboyant French paddler with movie-star ambitions, salvaged bronze after finishing sixth in the semifinal. Lefevre initially appeared to have won the silver, but a late penalty demoted him to bronze after he and gold-medal teammate Peschier had already leaped into the water in celebration.

The controversial ending was reminiscent of the C-1 final two days earlier. When Slovakian Michal Martikan won the 1996 Olympic gold as a 17-year-old upstart, many thought he would dominate the sport for a generation. But in 2000, Frenchman Tony Estanguet took gold ahead of him. In Athens, Martikan and Estanguet wrote another chapter in their historic rivalry. As the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” blared over the loudspeakers, Martikan cleaned the Athens course in 93.25 seconds-faster than any of the men’s kayaks. Estanguet responded with a run barely 12 one-hundredths of a second slower. Going into the final run, the pair was practically in a dead heat, three and a half seconds ahead of the next-closest competitor.

In the finals, Estanguet produced a clean but unremarkable run to move into first and Martikan smelled blood. He charged smoothly and powerfully and by mid-course it appeared he had won it, his lead growing with every split time flashing on the scoreboard. The sizeable Slovakian contingent cheered their Olympic champion even before Martikan surged across the line and pumped a fist in victory.

But as Estanguet gamely congratulated Martikan and the Slovakian contingent belted Slavic drinking songs, officials announced that Martikan had brushed the seventh gate, an upstream that had caused paddlers trouble throughout the competition. The two-second penalty moved Martikan into silver and gave Estanguet the gold. It also nearly caused a riot among the Slovak fans, especially when the inconclusive replay flashed repeatedly on the Jumbotron.

There could be no controversy about the Slovakian victory in C-2. Twins Pavol and Peter Hochschorner, the Sydney Olympic champions, showcased unmatched power and precision in repeating as gold medalists. Even an uncharacteristic gate touch in their second run couldn’t keep them from winning by nearly four seconds. Americans Joe Jacobi and Matt Taylor finished eighth overall. The 34-year-old veterans paddled well all year, but couldn’t match the blistering pace of their European rivals. “After every race we usually look back and decide what we can do to go faster,” says Jacobi. “After the Olympics was the first time we’ve ever turned around to see where we came from, and the view from eighth in the world looks really good. I still have goose bumps from being part of the greatest slalom race our sport has ever had.”

—Jeff Moag

Stroking for Broke

Men’s rowing team grabs the gold; women good enough for silver

The next time you need someone to help row the flats on the Grand Canyon, try calling the U.S. Rowing Team, which saw its men’s eights team win Athens gold and its women’s eights team win silver.

While the United States collects Olympic rowing hardware with some regularity, the Athens win marked the first time in 40 years that the Americans had won Olympic gold in the men’s eight, which many consider the sport’s biggest prize. The American women’s eight hadn’t won a medal of any color since claiming gold in 1984.

The men’s team was stacked with national team veterans, but the athletes had never competed in this combination before coming to Athens. Coach Mike Teti took considerable heat for that risky decision, but after their qualifying heat—in which the new crew edged the two-time defending world champions from Canada and destroyed the old world-best time by nearly three seconds—it was clear the gamble had paid off. With a 20 mph tailwind chasing them down the course near the ancient Marathon battlefield, the men covered the 2,000-meter distance in 5 minutes and 19.85 seconds.

The eight couldn’t match that time into a headwind on finals day, but they compensated by winning the gold in convincing fashion. The smooth-stroking Dutch gained a few feet in the closing strokes, but the race was essentially over at the halfway mark, when the Americans led by the full length of their 60-foot boat. All that remained for the eight rowers and coxswain Peter Cipollone was to get used to the idea that they had just won the Olympics. “It didn't seem real,” says rower Wyatt Allen. “It was almost like an out-of-body experience—you felt distanced from the pain. You just felt disbelief.”

The women’s team also set a world record in their qualifying heat, but in the final couldn’t match the speed of a Romanian eight loaded to the gunwales with multiple Olympic medallists. Among them was the most decorated rower in Olympic history, 39-year-old Elisabeta Lipa, back at the trough for her fifth gold medal in six Olympics. “I dedicate this medal to me,” she says.

—jm