o crap

Leading up to the boatrace, we have practice races called fixtures against other prominent crews.  One of our fixtures this year is against the Tideway Scullers, which is a rowing club in London, which hosts some serious scullers.  We just found out their lineup for the fixture against us.  Oh crap:

Stroke Iztok Čop , Slovenia

7 Ondřej Synek , Czech Republic

6 Olaf Tufte , Norway

5 Mahe Drysdale , New Zealand

4 Marcel Hacker , Germany

3 Lassi Karonen , Sweden

2 Alan Campbell , Great Britain

Bow Tim Mayens , Belgium

oh wait, why does this lineup look familiar?  I think these guys might have raced against each other in some little regatta called the olympic games;

Beijing Olympics 1x  final A results

Beijing Olympics 1x results

1		Norway	Olaf Tufte	6:59.83
2		Czech Republic	Ondrej Synek	7:00.63
3		New Zealand	Mahe Drysdale	7:01.56
4		Belgium	Tim Maeyens	7:03.40
5		Great Britain	Alan Campbell	7:04.47
6		Sweden	Lassi Karonen	7:07.64

the other two guys are just a little bit legit too;  

Iztop Cop is a 2 time world champion and gold medallist in the 2x, and Marcel Hacker is a two time world champion and got 7th in Beijing in the 1x.  These literally are the 8 best scullers in the world, and you could probably make an argument that they are the best rowers in the world, period. Its pretty epic that these guys are getting together to row a boat, and its an incredible honor to get to race them.