Do You Believe in Miracles?

Growing up one of my favourite stories was that of Peter Pan and even now it is still ranked right up there as one of the best! It taught me to believe that miracles could come true and that if I truly believed and worked hard it would help those miracles along. Now however I am not so sure.

It has been a very uneasy and frustrating 2 months since our teleconference with Rowing Australia. It has seemed like a lifetime waiting to find out what will be happening with our boat and whether or not we will get a chance to prove ourselves so that we will be able to compete at the World Championships in New Zealand in November. We had been told that we would be advised within a week of the teleconference but in actual fact it took them 5 weeks and 5 days to let us know!

Two weeks ago we finally got a message that the Board had approved the plan that was to be put in place and the seats in our boat had now been opened up to any LTA rower who was interested. I know that the crew who had been originally selected had all put their hands up for selection, but I was unsure about who else had decided to try and bump some of us out! To be honest it has been very frustrating dealing with the powers that be! The first email we got had everyone cc'd into it about what the selection process would be, but the second email that was sent to us was a bit more cryptic! All rowers who had nominated were blind copied in. To me it was like they were playing a game not letting us know who had nominated. I just wanted to say "come on people don't treat us like children!" We were also sent a training program that everyone was to follow with a number of ergo tests included.

It has been pretty obvious to all of us in the crew that there have been some underlying ideas by the national coaching staff and that was to have the least disabled crew possible. This I can understand as you want to have the fastest boat possible. But to us, it led us to believe that meant trying to get rid of one crew member in particular and replace him with someone else who has two legs. The problem I see is that even with one leg he is faster on the water than any of the possibilities. Unfortunately this has now come back to bite them on the butt! They have not been able to push that rower out, but we have lost young Nick from the crew!

The training program is based on Senior A selection. Nick has just turned 17, is currently doing his VCE (for those not in Australia - his last 2 years of high school, which are pretty tough down here) which is full on for him and has not been able to do the entire program that they want us all to follow. There is no bending by RA in regards to this training. The program is a generic training program and to me this is a very archaic way of thinking. I don't think they realise that as disabled athletes with a range of disabilites, it may not be possible for all of us to do the same program. I know that it has taken me 3 years to work out what works best for my body and dealing with my MS. The last thing I want is to end up in hospital because I am doing something different from what works for me! I guess only time will tell.

The problem now is that the other rowers that they hoped would nominate have fallen through. That leaves us in a bad position as four rowers are now down to three! You can't row a 4+ with 3 people! So unfortunately at this point we will not be going to the World Championships.

This has been very hard to get my head around and I am sure that the others are feeling the same way. We have all worked damn hard this year, with our focus on competing at Worlds and it looks like all that hard training is now down the tubes!

We have still been invited to a training camp next week in Canberra. Rowing in singles and a double, speaking to the nutritionist and working on recovery. This is supposed to keep us motivated and in the loop. But what do we have to motivate us if not for the World Champs. The next international competition is a year away, a very long time to stay motivated!

We have also been told that RA have been trying to find and entice new LTA rowers. Well I have been doing that for the last year...it isn't easy. So I now get back to the title "Do You Believe in Miracles?", because at this point the only thing that will get us competing internationally this year will be ONE BIG MIRACLE!