OKC Athletes Begin Olympic Selection Today at the East Coast Fall Speed Order

The selection process for the team that will represent the United States next summer at the 2012 Olympic Games in London officially began this week.

At locations on both sides of the country, USRowing will hold two fall speed orders beginning Thursday at the USRowing Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., and today at the USRowing Training Center in Princeton, N.J.

George and Smith

Speed orders have traditionally been held to establish ranking among athletes currently training with the national team and identify potential athletes. For the men’s side this year, the event results will help determine who will be invited to the selection camps where the crews that will compete in the eight, four and quadruple sculls will be chosen.

The top four finishers in the men’s single and top three men’s pairs at the Chula Vista event and the top two men’s singles and top two men’s pairs in Princeton will earn automatic qualification to the camps.

The majority of the Oklahoma High National Performance Center's athletes headed to the East Coast. In Princeton, indoor erg testing begins at 1:15 p.m. today. On-the-water racing will be held tomorrow on Carnegie Lake beginning at 8 a.m.

The east coast event features 106 crews rowing the men’s and women’s single sculls, men’s and women’s lightweight single sculls, men’s and women’s pairs and lightweight men’s pairs.

Participating in the women’s pair are 22 USRowing Training Center athletes. Among them, the women’s pair of Monica "Meg" George and Megan Smith will represent Oklahoma City. George and Smith recently captured a silver medal in the Women's Pair at the 2011 Pan American Games in October.

Peszek

In the men’s pair, eight OKC training center athletes are scheduled to compete including Tom Peszek, who rowed the event in Bled and qualified the boat for 2012. Peszek will be racing with Deaglan McEachern who was in the 2010 World Championship pair. A new combination of Greg Ansolabehere and Blaise Didier will be testing their speed. Didier placed 6th in the Men's Pair with Coxswain at the 2011 World Championships and won a gold medal at the Pan Am Games in the Men's Eight. Andrew Melander will be teaming up with Ryan Monaghan. Monaghan represented the US in the Men's pair in 2010.

Representing Oklahoma City in the Men's Single will be Pat Close, Martin Etem, Aaron Marcovy, Ryan Shelton, and Max Goff.

In the Lightweight Men's pair OKC training center athletes Will Newell and Jimmy Sopko, Nick LaCava and Anthony Fahden, Ryan Fox and Greg Flood, Kenny McMahon and Robin Prendes will compete for the top ranking going into winter training. Fahden, Prendes, and Fox represented US in Bled in the Lightweight Men's Four. Newell, Sopko, LaCava competed in the Lightweight Men's Eight.

OKC will have 2 representatives in the Lightweight Men's Single, Will Daly and Austin Meyer. Daly is a 2008 Olympian while Meyer raced in the 2010 World Championship Lightweight Men's Eight.