Olympics: Kayaking

U.S. Olympic Canoe and Kayak Team

Next week at the 2004 Olympic Games, the canoe and kayak races are anticipated to be the most watched water events. Bethesda native and whitewater kayakerJoe Jacobi returns to the Olympic Games in Athens 12 years after a gold medal finish in the C-2 event in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. He and his 1992 canoe partner, Scott Strausbaugh, are the only Americans ever to win gold in whitewater slalom. By virtue of their ninth place finish at the 2003 World Championships and victory at the Olympic Trials, Jacobi and partner Matt Taylor earned their Athens Olympic spot in the C-2 event by accumulating the most points in the three-race selection process. Jacobi was online Thursday, Aug. 12, at 2 p.m. ET to discuss his quest for another medal at the Olympics.

Jacobi began canoeing at the age of nine while attending Valley Mill Camp in Germantown, Md., owned by the parents of 1972 Olympic C-1 bronze medalist Jamie McEwan. He has paddled in rivers in 21 different countries since 1987 and was named "Paddler of the Century" by Paddler Magazine in 2000. In 1992, he was a top ten finalist for the U.S. Olympic Committee's Sportsman of the Year and was named USA Canoe/Kayak's Male Athlete of the Year. In 1999, he co-authored a book, "The Olympic Dream and Spirit."

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Joe Jacobi: Hi everybody from the Olympic Village in Athens! Everybody is excited for the start of the games tomorrow night and I'm happy to be here to chat with you.

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Washington, D.C.: Good Luck Joe!;

Can you contrast your current paddling style and partner with where you and Scott were in 1992?

Joe Jacobi: I think more than contrasting the difference between Scott, my 92 partner, and Matt, my current partner, is that the style of paddling the C2 has changed a lot during that time. Everything from boat design, stroke technique, race intensity has all progressed tremendously in 12 years. Having said that, one of the really nice parts about paddling with Matt in 2004 is not only that we compliment each other well in the boat but that we also have similar responsibilities in our lives away from the boat -- such as we both have families and a lot of responsibilities. We relate to each other and support each other well in those aspects. We've been friends for a long time as well which makes it fun.

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Bethesda, Md. : Joe

How do you and Matt train for an event that requires you to know exactly how your partner will react to any situation, while living in different cities? How many days in the last year were you in a boat together?

Joe Jacobi: It is a unique situation that Matt and I do not live in the same city. But in a typical week at home, meaning when we are not in training camp out of the country or out of our home area, we typically spend two to three days each week either in the boat together or lifting weights together.
Separately, we train in singles canoe and lift weights on our own.

Where we have an advantage in the situation by not living in the same place, we are always looking forward to being in the boat together and we are very motivated when we are together and we don't suffer from the staleness that many teams that train together everyday experience in their daily training.

When we are in training camps, we arrive ready to commit to our training 24 hours a day. We're highly motivated to do that moreso than a team that had been training together day to day prior to a training camp. We really use these training camps to make our "technical jumps."

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Westminster, Colo.: What did you learn from your former coach Bill Endicott that helped you to be a champion?. We will be cheering you on in Colorado.
Abbie Endicott is my sister.

Joe Jacobi: Bill taught us how to enjoy the process and be fanatic about the process as opposed to focusing on the results. When your process is good, the results will follow.

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Peachtree City, Ga.: Hi Joe. I looked in the dictionary under calm, and found your picture. In this setting of such high excitement and a sport that requires so much planning and precision, what do you do about adrenaline? Do you avoid it or make it your friend?
Tom

Joe Jacobi: I certainly don't avoid it. I think before adrenaline comes on, you know it's about to come on and you kind of see it through to the end and use it appropriately. Yesterday, I came back to the Olympic Village after a two day break out of Athens. As soon as I arrived back into the village, my adrenaline was really high -- there were more people and the level of excitement was huge. I just let that feeling run it's course; knowing that it's a bit too early to be excited about our race. Today I was more relaxed and grounded and focused on our goals.

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Harrisburg, Pa.: In addition to practicing canoeing and kayaking, what other types of training do you recommend that help in your sport?

Joe Jacobi: What I have learned in the last few years, I like to do sports that I enjoy and are fun to do. For me, those have been mountain biking, our coach taught us how to cross country ski (I love that) and I also enjoy trail running. The main point is that I choose the sports that I really enjoy doing and are fun.

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Ducktown, Tenn.: Hi Joe-
It's your wife and 3-year old daughter here. We are interested in hearing about the Olympic Village and especially the cafeteria scene at the Village. Have you met any fascinating individuals or have any fun stories from the chow line?

Joe Jacobi: Hi honey and Seu Jane! I miss you!

I see lots of interesting people in the cafeteria but probably the most interesting story is the prominent location of the McDonalds just as you walk into the front door. If you go to the McDonalds to get your food, you still have to take a long walk to the back of the cafeteria where everyone is sitting to begin to eat. This walk is known as the 'walk of shame' because you're at the Olympic village and they are serving all this great food and you're choosing to eat McDonald's. I have not taken this "walk of shame" yet nor do I plan to. I'm astounded by how much variety they have at the village. I've been eating really good Greek food and salads. It's the best stuff there!

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Deep South, Miss.: Joltin' Joe!;

Its Rush!; I hope you and Matt lay down two stellar runs and appear on the podium!; Best wishes and luck to you guys and the rest of the team - give a shout out to Scottie, Ennis, Brett, Matt and Rebecca for me. We'll all be watching and rooting for you guys!;!; All best and good luck!;!; Go USA!;

Got a quick question for you. Looking back at '92 and thinking of how the sport has changed since then, how have you changed your training and approach to this Olympics from how you trained and prepared for '92?

Go fast and clean!;!;
Cheers,
Rush

Joe Jacobi: The biggest change for me is to balance training and having a balanced life away from the boat -- family and mortgage payment. I think the balance gives us a lot of completeness and makes us more complete as athletes.

In 1992 I was 22 years old and I was happy to put all the eggs in just one basket. I only had to worry about training and racing -- which were the only things in my life. Now there are a lot of other things in my life that make me happy and more well-rounded as an athlete competing. I like it more the way it is today -- I like having a family and other things in my life that contribute to what I do in the water. And for what time I do spend in the water, I want to do it the best I can because I know that I am taking away time from other things that I enjoy.

I stopped racing in the doubles canoe in 1992 and raced in the singles canoe for nine years before coming back to the doubles. I had to relearn all the new techniques for doubles racing and it's all very sport specific technique but nevertheless, much different than 12 years ago.

Thanks for keeping in touch!

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Atlanta, Ga.: Hi Joe- I know you're having a ball in Greece. Great success and lots of fun to you and Matt. Did the added bouyancy of the sea-water in the white-water course cause you to adjust your paddling?

Pete

Joe Jacobi: Good question. The salt water has been a pretty adjustment for all the athletes that are paddling here in Athens. This course is the first salt water whitewater course of its kind in the world. So, first you have the normal irritation to your eyes and second, you realize that you paddle with your mouth open more than you think. The real difference in the feeling of the salt water is its softness. It feels like skiing in powder versus fresh water feeling like skiing on hard packed snow.
Those are the main differences that we recognize with the salt water.

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Minneapolis, Minn.: What role do you think performance enhancing drugs will have in this Olympics and/or whitewater slalom?

Joe Jacobi: I don't think it will have an affect on whitewater slalom. The affect on the Games is something that I can think about a lot at this time. I came to these games with Matt to live our moment and we're focused on doing that to the best of our ability.

I'm not sure where the controversy is seeing that we all are expected to adhere to the same rules. When a lot of media have asked me this question, they ask if the controversy takes away from what we came here to do. Definitely not.

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Fort Worth, Tex.: Can you give us a comparison of the artificial courses you've raced on?

Joe Jacobi: The course here in Athens is steeper, more powerful and more challenging than the other artificial courses that we've raced on. The course is non stop whitewater from start to finish but it's also the most fun to paddle of all the artificial courses that I've paddled. When you add in more challenge, ultimately you will get more fun. They have done that here in Athens.

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Washington, D.C.: Do you know most of the guys you will be competing against this week from prior races? Who do you expect will be your toughest competition (i.e., who might come in second and third)?
Good luck Joe!;

Joe Jacobi: Matt and I are good friends with all of our competitors. We travel around the world together paddling rivers. Naturally, the friendships we form are very strong and we have so much respect for all of our competitors who have made it to this race. That's what the Olympics are all about.

I expect everyone to be our toughest competition. I come into the race believing everyone has a chance to race their best so I don't think one boat is tougher than another. We just focus on our performance and things we have to do to paddle well in our race.

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Vienna, Va.: How do you think the French and Czech paddlers will do there? Just got off the river with Davey and Jesse. Doc Kayak

Joe Jacobi: The whitewater teams from France and the Czech Republic are their top performing summer Olympic teams in their respective countries. So as a team, they will perform well. Specifically in my race, the doubles canoe competition, there are 12 boats in the race. All of them are very good boats and almost all of them are capable of winning a medal.

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Jefferson, Md.: Hey Joe, Eric Levine here. I have fond memories of your first whitewater experience at Difficult run with Valley Mill. What turned you on to keep paddling and to aim for such a high goal? I'm proud to say I knew you as a young boater.

Joe Jacobi: Eric Great to hear from you and thank you for following our pursuits here in Athens. I think what kept me excited about paddling at young age was that it was something that I really enjoyed doing as a sport. I liked the people that I spent time with on the river and I saw an opportunity to be involved in a sport that I could do my whole life. I'm very grateful to all of you who created this opportunity for me.

Joe Jacobi: It's incredible how much better the access is to our sport and to rivers than it was twenty years ago, particularly in the Washington area.

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Julie from Reston, Va.: Hi Joe, How is the on-the-water training going? Do you know what the layout for the competition course will be? Are there any specific moves you guys have been having difficulty with? Go Clean!;

Joe Jacobi: The layout for the race course (the gate positions) won't be finalized until Aug. 16th and racing begins on the 17th. So, at this point rather than try to guess at what the specific moves will be in the race, we are focusing more on concepts to paddle the course well regardless of the layout. We've been having a lot of good workouts and building a good progression towards our race. We're looking forward to getting started!

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Benton, Tenn.: The folks back home are cheering for you
... How does the course there compare to
the Ocoee Whitewater Center?

Joe Jacobi: The Ocoee is a 1996 Olympic whitewater venue and one of the most popular whitewater rafting destination in the U.S.
What is similar to the course in Athens and the Ocoee is that they are both strong pushy rivers but the course in Athens is steeper and more continuous, whereas the Ocoee is much wider river.

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Joe Jacobi: Thanks for all of your support and I look forward to seeing all of you soon! Enjoy the Games and be looking for the whitewater competition between Aug. 17 and Aug. 20. For more info about whitewater canoe/kayak, check out the website of USA Canoe/Kayak at www.usack.org or visit my and Matt's personal web site at www.canoeracer.com.

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