Feel out of the loop because NBC didn't cover our beloved paddlesports with the same vigor it did diving? Well here's an opportunity to meet the folks who represented the US in the games and take a look at how they did.

Rami Zur
Event: K-1 500M

Age: 32
Resides: Newport Beach, California

Placed: Sixth in semi-finals, did not advance to finals

Days after Rami Zur placed 10th in the K-1 500-meter flatwater sprint at his second Olympic Games in Athens, he dove into the shallow end of his hotel pool and broke his neck. The injury threatened to paralyze him and required a surgery that fused his C5 and C6 vertebrae. Five weeks after the surgery, however, he was back in the water. Three months after that he battled the notoriously high winds and large swells of Hawaii’s Molokai Channel and finished the crossing. Now, nearly four years later, the 31-year-old hopes to apply this type of tenacity to bring the U.S. a medal in the K-1 500-meter race.

One month after he was born in Berkely, California, an Israeli couple adopted him as their son and raised him on a kibbutz near the Sea of Galilee, where he found his passion for paddling. Racing for Israel in the 2000 Sydney Games, Zur reached the semifinals in the K2 500 and 1000 with partner Roei Yellin. In 2001 Zur visited the Olympic training Center in Chula Vista, California, met with the coaching staff, and decided to join the U.S. Olympic squad.

“I moved to the U.S. because I wanted to pursue my athletic career, where if I stayed in Israel this would not be possible financially,” says Zur. “Unfortunately the priorities in Israel are different, and sports is not at the top of the list.”

“In Olympic events he is a top-five threat any day of the week,” says Nathan Luce, U.S. Canoe/Kayak sprint head coach who has been training Zur for Beijing since January.

Zur has earned one gold and three bronze medals at World Cup events. His most recent World Cup success, in Zegreb, Croatia, qualified one of the first guaranteed U.S. kayak sprint spots in the Beijing Games. Competing in a race in which mere tenths of a second separate podium-standers from non-medalists, anyone consistently finishing in the top five has a legitimate shot at a medal, depending on the race he has.

“Every race has crazy margins, so you have to make sure everything goes right,” says Zur. “And a little bit of luck helps.”

Despite qualifying the position for the U.S., his road to the games is not without its obstacles. Zur sustained his first U.S. defeat in the 500 when a 21-year-old Georgian named Morgan House outpaddled him at the U.S. Olympic trials in Oklahoma City last April.

“I was really excited, I almost couldn’t believe it,” says House. This gives House the opportunity to take the Olympic position if he beats Zur again at the World Cup in Szeged Hungary. As this article goes to print, that upset is still in the realm of possibilities. House trained with Zur in the weeks leading up to their final pre-Games showdown, and while Zur admitted that the competition helps him in practice, he remains completely self-focused during races.

“I try to race with myself; the less I pay attention to other racers the better I do,” he says. “If you asked me who was next to me in the [Athens] Olympics I couldn’t tell you.”

Carrie Johnson
Event: K-1 500m

Age: 24
Resides: San Diego

Placed: Fourth in semi-finals did not move on to finals

Johnson’s athletic career began in gymnastics, but she gained interest in kayaking and quickly took to her new sport. At just 20 years old, she qualified for the 2004 Athens Games and had the highest American finish, 10th place, in the preliminary rounds, narrowly missing the ninth and final place to qualify for the final round. Since then, Johnson has kept progressing at a promising pace. She won the gold medal in the 1000m at last year’s World Cup in Szeged, Hungary. She became the first American sprinter to qualify for Beijing with a fifth-place finish at the 2007 world championships in Duisburg, Germany.

Scott Parsons
Event: K-1 slalom

Age: 29,
Hometown: Sylvania, Ohio

Placed: Third in heat did not advance to semi-finals

Parsons is the only member of the U.S. team who has competed in the Olympics and is well prepared for the Beijing Games. He earned a bronze medal at the World Cup in Augsburg, Germany, to claim the only K-1 spot open for a U.S. paddler. Last year, Parsons took eighth at the World Cup and seventh in the world championships. His first Olympic Games appearances was in 2004 in Athens, Greece, where he took sixth place, just 6.8 points behind French gold medalist Benoit Pescheir. Just qualifying for Beijing was a battle. Parsons faced stiff competition from fellow Americans Bretty Heyl and Scott Mann. “Men’s K-1 is our strongest opportunity for amedal in Beijing,” 1992 C-1 gold medalist and NBC commentator Joe Jacobi told Paddler. When Parsons isn’t training, he is an orthotics and prosthetics technician at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. “One of the best parts is getting to meet the kids I’m making the things for,” he told The Washington Post in April 2008. “They’re young and so motivated. Making something that fits and feels good and helps them get back on their feet, it’s humbling.” Pick up a copy of the Mar/Apr 2008 issue of Paddler for a look at Parsons daily routine and diet.

Benn Fraker
Event: C-1 slalom

Age: 19
Hometown: Peachtree, Georgia

Placed: Fifth place in finals—our best American placement

Resides: Charlotte, North Carolina
Fraker is the oldest of three children. His dad introduced him to paddling when he was just 9 years old. If he qualifies for the Olympics, Fraker will be one of the younger competitors on the course. He has experienced success in China before, finishing with the fastest first-round time at a test event on the Beijing course last year, one of his best races ever.

“Benn is a rare visionary,” says coach Cathy Hearn. “He has very high expectations for himself and great creativity and dedication in pursuit of his goals.”

Heather Corrie
Event: K-1 slalom

Age: 37
Hometown: Loughborough, United Kingdom

Placed: Twelfth in heat did not advance to semi-finals

Corrie grew up in Great Britain and has paddled for England most of her life. She decided, however, in 2006 to begin competing for the United States (her mother is American). Corrie’s family exposed her to the outdoors at a young age: mountain biking, climbing, and paddling. She often spent summers with her grandparents in Minnesota and paddled with a local club in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. At age 12, she once used a borrowed kayak and paddled in her first major race, the U.S. Nationals, in Wausau, Wisconsin. Earlier this year, she won a gold medal at the Pan American International Games. She also took fifth at the world championships in 2005.

Casey Eichfeld
Event: C-2 slalom

Age: 18
Hometown: Drums, Pennsylvania

Placed: Eleventh in heat did not advance to finals

Just about the age when most kids were trying on prom tuxedos, Eichfeld was competing against the best C-2 paddlers in the world in hopes of qualifying for the Beijing Games. He did so, along with partner Rick Powell, in the 2008 World Cup in Augsburg, Germany, where they finished 12th. The duo began paddling together two years ago and are the youngest paddlers on the U.S. team. Eichfeld went on his first canoe trip when he was just 18 months old and began competing in C-1 races when he was 6. In 2000, when Eichfeld was just 10, Paddler picked Eichfeld as a “Paddler of the Next Century.” Thanks for making us look smart, Casey.

Rick Powell
Event: C-2 slalom

Age: 19
Hometown: Parkesburg, Pennsylvania

Placed: Eleventh in heat did not advance to finals

Like his teammate, Powell went on his first canoe trip when he was still in diapers. He was just two when his parents first took him out on the water, adding credence to the belief that it’s good to get them started young. Powell competed in his first world championship in 2007 and just one year later was battling for the lone C-2 position in the World Cup in Augsburg, Germany, which he earned along with Eichfeld. Powell also has twin-blade skill. In 2004, he finished in 14th place in the K-1 event at the junior world championships. He graduated from Chester County High School in December 2006 and 14 months later earned an associates degree in business administration from the American Intercontinental University online.