April 12, 1996

Playing the shell game
By Dennis McCafferty

There are 220 athletes gunning for a spot on the U.S. Olympic rowing team this weekend at Lake Lanier near Gainesville, Georgia.

And most of them will walk away disappointed. Others will be crushed.

After dedicating four, five, six, or more lonely hours a day on the rowing machine--or skimming across a cold lake each morning--most of these people will end up with nothing but a busted dream come Sunday.

It comes down to simple math. There are 48 slots and 220 people trying to climb aboard.

Sure, some will regroup and try again in four years. Other don't have that option.

For lightweight Lindsay Burns, 31, this weekend's trials represent a first and last chance. This is the first Olympics where lightweight teams will be competing. In Barcelona in 1992, Burns watched the teams perform while she served as an alternate. And this will almost certainly be her last shot at the team.

"I want to go out of the sport in this event, representing the U.S. in the lightweight double [scull]," Burns said.

With her partner, Teresa Z. Bell, Burns took a big step toward that goal on Friday as they won their first finals race. In the Olympic trials format, they only need to win one of two races on Sunday to make the team.

Women's head coach Hartmut Buschbacher is putting his world gold-medal winning women's eight team to work. Not only are they rowing in what has amounted to exhibition runs as an eight, but six athletes on the boat are racing in the women's pair competition. Buschbacher wants to see if any of the resulting three boats will be Olympic material. (That means the six women may row a grueling three runs on Sunday.)

The pair to beat, however, isn't part of the women's eight. Karen Kraft and Melissa Schwen, silver medalists in last year's world games, bested all would-be competitors by winning Friday's finals race.

The men's single scull has emerged as the most hotly contested race of all, with 26 rowers going for the sole slot. The crowds were buzzing about an anticipated match between prodigy Cyrus Beasley, 24, and savvy veteran John Riley Jr., 32. "There are subtle things that will help me," Riley said, after winning his first race. "But the bottom line here is who's strongest and fittest and technically sound."

Then, only a couple hours later, Riley was injured in a car accident just a few miles from the venue as he made his way back to his hotel. He fractured a collarbone and is out of the competition. News of the accident stunned the rowing community.

Squaring off against Beasley is emerging crowd favorite Aquil Abdullah, an engaging rower who happens to be African American--somewhat of a rarity in the sport. On his Walkman, Abdullah plugs in the boom of Tupac Shakur or chills out with the late jazz master, John Coltrane, when he works out on the water. (In fact, Abdullah plays tenor sax, just like Coltrane.)

Abdullah was ready to play wide receiver for the North Carolina A&T football team, but found he could get a better scholarship at George Washington University as a rower. (He only picked up rowing in his senior year because he didn't like track.)

But even if he doesn't make the team, and he's a long shot to do so, Abdullah will take home a special memory: Competing against Joe Bouscaren, 38, who's been an inspiration to him. Like Abdullah, Bouscaren is considered slight for a single sculler, but has a long, distinguished career that included a spot on the 1984 Olympic team. Bouscaren was profiled extensively in noted author David Halberstam's classic rowing tome, The Amateurs.

"He showed me that if you want it bad enough, you can do it," Abdullah said.

As you might expect, ritualism rules at the Olympic trials. Gold medalist Brad Lewis (also featured in Halberstam's book) was known to get his aura balanced pre-competition, getting a friend to apply just the right pressure points.

Rower Chris Schulten, 24, is living on rice cakes and oatmeal this week. "After it's over, I'm going to get three large pizzas and eat them by myself," he said.

Sculler Greg Lewis (no relation to Brad) always gets up three hours before a meet and eats frosted strawberry Pop Tarts for breakfast. "Most rowers don't want to do anything for the first time on race day," he explained.

Dennis McCafferty covered the rowing trials for Outside Online. He is a staff writer on the state news desk for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.